The Musician... see you among the stars

The Musician...see you among the stars

2006-04-29T03:51:00.000-04:00

Warning! Contains Explicit Material
See more information below and read the disclaimer before reading the material contained herein

Dedicated to: Marie Dore & Gracie Sammartino

I would like to thank all the Mafia´s involved, no matter how unjust they might have been, who put their efforts in making this musical era flourish, and for personally keeping my neighborhood crime free and safe. I also want to thank the great men who recognized the music and provided the wax specifically, the great Clive Davis and Columbia Records, Berry Gordy and Motown Records, and all the greats at Stax Records.

Thanks to Elva Ray Bergstedt for the inspiration. She put the thought of writing this autobiography into my mind.

Special thanks go to some of the most helpful and influential in my life; James R. Bergstedt, Matt Boggs, Marie Dore Granatelli, Val White, Frances, Hugo, Joey "Doe" Sammartino and Ritchie Wheelchair.

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This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of educational, environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information see:

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Chazzsongs Publishing companies are: Chazzsongs Music and Chazz Entertainment Ltd. For more information visit Chazzsongs Music

Acknowledgments:

I was blessed to be born during the years from 1942 to 1950, which created by birth, some of the most talented group of people that ever existed, and I was among them, performed with many, and watched most of them perform live. I thank my Creator for giving me such a wonderful fantastic era to be alive and the gift of music.

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From Top Left: Otis Redding, Eric Burden and the Animals, Cream, Neil Sadaka, Al Green, Elvis, Simon and Garfunkal, Sam and Dave, Glady's Knight and the Pips, Dionne Warwick, Ritchie Valens, Led Zeppelin, Mountain, Debbie Reynolds, Marvin Gaye, The Ventures, The Brooklyn Bridge, Booker T and the MG's, Traffic, Crosby, Stills and Nash, Dave Clark Five, The Young Rascals, James Tayler, The Moody Blues, Earth, Wind and Fire, Richie Havens, Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs, Sal Mineo, Duwane Eddy, Aretha Franklyn, Little Ritchard, Jimi Hendrix, The 5th Dimension, Fabian, The Isley Brothers, Jan and Dean, The Beatles, Soupy Sales, Chicago, The Four Seasons, Issac Hayes, Triny Lopez, The Ronnetts, The Big Bopper, James Brown, Bobby Vinton, The Everly Brothers, Wilson Picket, Peter and Gordon, Ricky Nelson and Family, Mitch Ryder, Teddy Pendergrass, Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, Frank Zappa, Kool and the Gang, The Temptations, The Mamas and Papas.

...., but I didn't like this:

Something about this book

I wrote this book, because I told a lot of the true stories to many people and especially my friend Jim's mother Elva who just loved the stories and told me that I should send them to Readers Digest and that many people would like to read my true stories. That is when she got me thinking. At first, I thought it was a great idea, you know, maybe making some money. The more I thought about it the more confused I got. Why, because where do I start and which story would people rather like to hear and the more I thought about it.... Should I tell the story about when Hendrix and I almost got kicked out of the Brazzarie Restaurant? What about the story of Jake Jacobson? That's a classic too. And what about experiencing the country's kaos during the killing of the president Kennedy and others that followed and the gradual capital elite corporate takeover of America that proceeded it. I knew it, felt it and lived it while the people were dieing all around me because of it. This is more than short stories to Readers Digest which will certainly not accept some of the topics even though they are real. Nah! I need to write the entire story. Nothing can be left out! It's more of a documentary of real life, real people, and so it went.

Something about the layout of this autobiography.

The book is basically about music but manifests into other areas when my life and world gets turned upside down. I wanted to talk mainly about the creative things I've done, and all the fantastic people I met along the way and had great experiences with. Thus, the stories about my growing up in the beginning of this book are kept as minimal as possible, although interesting and unique too. My surroundings during my childhood age is not that important to me until I begin to talk about the way it leads me into the music business, and then the stories evolve into more detail and get more intense only because I was brought up in an innocent era which transformed into a violant era to make way for the twin towers and its ideology.

Thus, it was very difficult writing this autobiography. I had to re-live my life over and over again. The five years I spent in my wonderful cabin home in Creel, Mexico reading, studying, and comprehending the OAHSPE Bible during my break times away from this autobiography certainly made it a much more enjoyable task, but still, the mental anguish of re-living your life continuously is kind of sad. Then I had to read the same written material over and over again many times to try and get it right and comprehensible until I couldn't take it anymore.

When that happened, I took a very long break and actually forgot all about writing the book purposely, and I didn't think about it again for about another three years. Then, when I had some free vacant time, I took one third of the the first part of the book and concentrated on getting its mood as correctly as possible, and once I made that happened, it renewed my inspiration again and I continued.

As in music, when you're recording one of your songs, the song is never finished. Every time you do another mix you hear something that needs improvement. It goes on and on and basically, you just got to say STOP! Go on to the next song. That's the way it is and that's the way it's going to be. Same with this book, I can add and add and change and rewrite parts, but NO, this is the best I can get it for now. At times, I will still add to it and correct it if something new pops-up or something important develops up until my death.

In addition, I grew up at the early time of the UFO phenomena which showed me that there was something greater out there. After the killing of JFK, The United States of America changed drastically for the worst. With it, an entire peace loving movement of people had been destroyed along with my current career and the entire New York music scene as the slow moving corporate shift took its place. My goal had then become to learn who and/or what was responsible for that. It was a wakeup call to seek truth, and I would learn that the truth was very hard to find. The belief-system that was mind-controlled and instilled in me made it more difficult. I relied on the T.V. news and the media in general to inform me. I somehow always knew intuitively, even when I was little, that something was wrong or something was not right with my surroundings, my country, and the world, but I didn't know what it was. It was not until I actually saw the UFOs fly over my head later on in my life that the real serious truth seeking had come into my mind. The truth seeking built very slowly and gradually grew as I retained more knowledge. It would manifest greater as more time went on as more and more information was coming available to me, because I was seriously looking. I would learn that the further you walk that path of uncovering the truth, the bigger the path gets so one has to stay focused. Near the end, I would finally learn who and what destroyed my generation and who continues to do so throughout the world.

As you walk this path with me, you may also find in these writings, vulgar language, sexual attitudes, bias, prejudice, conspiracies, hatred, resentment, depression, ignorance, unpatriotic thoughts, suicidal tendencies, and many other feelings, thoughts and emotions too numerous to list them all.

This is a part of life that everyone experiences, but they are afraid to admit or ever say openly. However, I wanted to write a true autobiography with no holes bared and so, I exposed everything I experienced and how I felt at the time of the event in order to present the real truthful picture of feelings and scattered emotions as it actually happened. We become the product of the people and system surrounding us that instill it in us knowingly and unknowingly and yet, in life, we try to grow and hopefully learn to deal with it and overcome them all. I certainly have tried to do that, but it took all my life to accomplish this thanks to my Creator and spirit, and my willingness to learn and move on. If I didn't overcome all those things mentioned above, or at least improved on them, then my afterlife in the spirit world would mean nothing.

Throughout this autobiography, you will learn about some great music events, music people some you love and some you didn't know about, and places that you never knew had existed. So, through all that's mentioned above, try to enjoy the ride.

btw: The term "see you among the stars," was my trade mark that I developed when I first began writing autographs if you were lucky to have gotten one from me. I would sign my name and under or next to my name I would write, "see you among the stars." It has a double personal meaning for me and that is why I chose it. First, because I performed with many pop stars or hung-out with many top star people in the music business and maybe you will see me performing again on stage somewhere. The second meaning is, that if I don't ever see you again then, after we die, maybe I will bump-into you in the spirit world somewhere...so see you among the stars

Chapters:

The Musician | [Disclaimer] | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48a | 48b | 48c | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 |

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Disclaimer

2006-04-28T03:49:00.000-04:00

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Chapter 1 - Growing Up

2006-04-27T04:03:00.000-04:00

I can remember that hot summer day sitting on the little step that leads to the entrance of the 86th Street train station in Gravesend, Brooklyn, New York. Gravesend is a small area located between two very well known Brooklyn sections, Bensonhurst, and Sheepshead Bay.

My friend Brother Bill and I were drinking Coca-Cola, and facing the background view of the gigantic Ferris Wheel called the Wonder Wheel, and the 250 foot tall Parachute Jump in Coney Island. In the foreground was Barney’s Candy store where we bought the Coca-Cola. It was very hot, maybe around 90 degrees on that unknown day in July of 1952. I can remember how quiet and peaceful it was. Brother Bill and I were thinking of jumping on the train and going that one long last stop on the BMT Line train to the Coney Island beach, Bay 14. That is where we would go if only we had two quarters for the train fare. We were thoughten? (That is our Brooklyn slang word for thinking.)

Brother Bill said let us try jumping the fence. He stood up and I followed him as he walked across 86th Street to the jungle type lot that I have not yet dared to enter. We walked a few feet along the barbed wire fence that led down to the outdoor subway station. Brother Bill was kicking down the dense ten-foot tall weeds. I followed, but felt like I was in the Amazon jungle. Brother Bill was 10 years old and I was only seven. He was not my brother. That is was what everyone called him, when I meet him. Everyone had a nickname but me.... Everyone including my family called me Junior. I liked Brother Bill. I felt safe with him. When you are small and seven years old, everyone in the neighborhood tries to pick on you. Not if your friend is Brother Bill! Brother Bill is tough, and everyone is afraid of him. Brother Bill likes me and so I followed. As he made this path along the barbed wire fence, Brother Bill showed me a secret.... He made an open hole in the fence that he had cut days earlier. He peaked through the opening and there were no cops or anyone else on the station platform. We then both slipped through.

There we were, standing on the subway platform in the subway platform area of the station. 86th Street passes above us. As we were waiting for the subway train to arrive, we could see off in the distance about three subway stations away. Brother Bill suddenly jumped off the platform and on to the tracks. I got scared. ‘I yelled, “Brother Bill... What are you doing?” Brother Bill told me not to be afraid. He then picked up a rock from the gravel covering the tar of the tracks, stood on the wood above the third rail, and began writing his name in big letters on the tunnel wall. Shortly thereafter, I noticed the train front lights in the distance and yelled to Brother Bill, “The trains coming.” He looked down the rails with a smile and replied that he had plenty of time. I watched the train getting closer and closer. I watched Brother Bill’s reluctant attitude as he continued to complete his name. The train was now at the Avenue U stop, which is just one station before the subway platform Brother Bill was still scribbling away, and as the train was about one thousand yards away, he quickly jumped back on the platform. I thought that was very cool how he waited for the last moment. We then started running to the front of the platform where we could enter into the front car when it stopped.

I told Brother Bill that this was the first time I rode the train. The engineer was looking at us as the train pulled in. The doors opened and we went in to the front window of the car. With all his strength, Brother Bill unlocked the brackets of the front window and opened the window so we could have a great view of the one stop long ride to Coney Island. The train pulled out and Brother Bill and I had our heads slightly out of the front car window. As the wind was blowing our hair back, and squinting our eyes, we were watching the tracks move below, as the train went through the train yard on the way to Coney Island. Coney Island was the last stop. Just before Coney Island, is a major train yard? I was enjoying this moment very much, and words alone could not express the feeling. As the train came close to Coney Island, there was a little bridge going over this.... What seemed like an inlet from the ocean? Brother Bill said, “This is Perfume Bay.” I said, ‘Perfume Bay?’ ‘Yeah,’ Brother Bill said, ‘just smell it, it’s polluted and that’s what everyone calls it.’ So as we passed over Perfume Bay, the part that makes Coney Island an Island. We were approaching the last stop in Brooklyn, Coney Island. As we were pulling in to the station very slowly, the one thing I noticed down below in the street was this gigantic crowd by this place called Nathan’s Famous.

We exited the train station and walked across the street to Nathan’s where all these people were eating these 5 cents hot dogs. Brother Bill had ten cents on him so we bought two dogs, and boy they were great. I could not see much because I was eating in the mist of a thousand people. Brother Bill and I then proceeded toward the boardwalk as we passed the House of Wax.... Then the roaring roller coaster called the Tornado, and past a place called Schrott’s Baths. We continued up the boardwalk ramp and on to the boardwalk and as I looked around the only thing that caught my eye was the Parachute Jump towering about 250 feet into the air. I became frozen in my tracks as I watch these people sitting in this seat connected to a closed parachute that was climbing to the top of the 250-foot tower. Then the parachute hit the top and opened. In an instant flash, the parachute began descending quickly toward the ground, and the people began to scream. Brother Bill grabbed me and we entered the beach.... Bay 14. We walked to the ocean through the walls of sun loving people. Brother Bill took his clothes off and went into the water in his underwear and I watched and did the same. I only entered the water a few feet, but Brother Bill went in and swam out there far. The water was cold so I did not stay in long. I sat on the beach waiting for Brother Bill but I could not keep my eyes off the Parachute Jump. Repeatedly I watched people ride. I thought that I would never go on that thing.

Living a short distance (one train stop) from Coney Island is a welcome blessing. Brother Bill took me for a stroll down Bowery Street where all the rides, roller coasters, shooting galleries, and spook houses are. Coney Island is wall-to-wall people. I could live here! Brother Bill showed me a spook house called the Magic Carpet. People would enter this dark spook house that was very freighting on the inside as Brother Bill explained. When the people came out of the spook house, they had to sit in this three person wide chair. They sat in the chair for a short moment while everyone on the outside watched. Then the chair suddenly gave way beneath them and the people fell upon this fast moving carpet beneath them. The people screamed loudly as the carpet carried them to the entrance of the spook house. “Someday I would like to try that”, I told Brother Bill.

We stood there for about fifteen minutes watching these people screaming every time the chair fell under them and on to the carpet.

Then Brother Bill took me close by to see the Thunderbolt roller coaster. I knew that I would never go on that. It had a very scary first drop. Brother Bill told me that this roller coaster is faster than the Cyclone.

Then we continued walking along the Bowery to another roller coaster, The Tornado. I stood there frozen watching this roller coaster make the embankment turns. This too made me frightened. I listened as the people in the cars are screaming. Again I knew that I would never go on this ride either.

Directly opposite the Tornado was the House of Wax. At the entrance to the House of Wax were figures engaged in brutal slayings. Wax type blood everywhere. It was disgusting and terrifying, as it appeared very real. The look of it made me nauseous and sick. I couldn’t look at it very long.

Brother Bill told me to follow him to checkout the Cyclone. I followed in amazement. I watched as I walked behind Brother Bill people trying to win a prize shooting at ducks with this high-powered BB gun. We passed the entrance to the Wonder Wheel and over to the Cyclone. This roller coaster had the deepest drop of them all. I would never go on this ride ever. I would never spend 25 cents to go on the Cyclone. I watch the people getting off the cars as it finished, and they were very terrified. I don’t know how they got the guts to get on this ride. A patron asked Brother Bill and me if we wanted to go on with him. I refused, but Brother Bill accepted. Brother Bill tried to convince me to go on, because it was free. I told him that I would not…. I’ll just watch. I went along the side street to catch a better look. As the cars headed up the ramp to the first drop Brother Bill and the guy waved at me. I returned the wave. I watched with much excitement to see the expressions on their faces, as they were about to enter the drop. Man ‘O Man this is something else. I heard the screams of the people and thought to my self that this was not a way of having fun. I would rather play miniature golf…. That is my fun! I watch them go up and round and over and under. As the ride was beginning to end, I ran to the entrance to watch them come to a stop. Brother Bill was pumped-up as he exited the ride. He was breathing heavily as if he ran a mile. “That was something else, I told Brother Bill. You should have seen the expression on your face. You were very happy with smiles as you went up to the top, but as soon as you started to descend, you looked completely frightened. “I wasn’t frightened,” Brother Bill replied. However, I knew that it had shaken him up. It was getting late so we returned home.

I arrived home around 6 PM after another great day with Brother Bill, and my family was sitting in the dining room having dinner. My father, Charles senior, is a Barber and worked in Rockaway. My mother, Rosalie, is a garment worker and worked in a sowing factory in Brooklyn. I have three sisters and one brother; Jeannette, age 11; Marie, age 13; Rosetta, age 16; and Thomas age 18; were attending Junior and senior High School. I sat at the dinner table and devoured the veal cutlets with a great oil and vinegar and red wine. That's right! Red wine is always on the dinner table every evening and anyone can drink it. It is a requirement of my family. My brother, having finished his dinner grabbed the 8mm Kodak movie camera and began walking around the table taking movies of the family having dinner. After dinner I ran outside on 7th Street and attended a stick ball game that was just starting. It was an intense game with a lot of cheating and arguing going on. As usual, a neighbor named, Eddy, who lived a couple of houses next to mine, came out of his house angry. With his cigar always hanging out of his mouth, Eddy started yelling, “Why don’t you goddam kids go down the end of the block and get out of here?” As usual, we told him to get lost. Every time Eddy talked it was goddam this or goddam that. We ignored either him or best yet mimicked him. “Why don’t you goddam kids get out of here,” we would say back to him.

The next week, my father took me to an Army show in Coney Island. There would be all kinds of Army equipment on display. Tanks; cannons; rifles; army trucks, and all kinds of equipment having to do with the U.S. Army. It was kind of interesting to see the real thing after playing along time at home with the army toys and little plastic solders.

I remembered all this talk about flying saucers, UFO’s. It was mentioned everywhere in the newspapers and on TV. Life and Look magazine did many layouts and stories on the subject. There were sightings everywhere. I can remember the live coverage on TV about the large group of UFO’s that were flying over the White House. It was most incredible. They had made many movies and newsreels about them. One of the movies I will never forget. It was called, The Day the Earth Stood Still. I believe that I had a dream about meeting a little alien being with large eyes. I never knew if it was a dream or the real thing. It stumped me throughout my life. My interest in UFO’s had grown immensely. I became fascinated with the subject, and I wished that I would eventually see one someday or meet with the occupants. From 1947 to 1955 there were UFO’s all over the place.

A strange thing happened to me while I attended Public School 95 in Gravesend, Brooklyn. My classroom on the forth floor had very large windows and looking out of those window we could see the inlet to the ocean where all the great large passenger steam ships would enter New York City. Our teacher made it a point to have us all watch for them when we spotted one passing through. They were spectacular to see, because the looked larger than life. One day, I looked out the window from my desk, and I saw a strange light high above the inlet where the ships traveled. The light began to shine a beacon and as I watched the beacon, the beacon of light began to shine toward me and I quickly jumped below my desk to avoid being hit by the beacon and as I quickly looked up again the light and beacon faded and disappeared. The teacher was caught by surprise at my sudden movements and asked me what happened and I told her that a light beacon began to shine on my so I ducked. She smiled and had no idea what I was talking about. I remember that view all of my life so vividly until one day in 2007, I came across a Google Utube video which surprisingly was exactly what I saw:

One day, my father brought home a present for me. A pump gun that shot out these 3-inch plastic balls. I became so excited, that the next day my friends and I played war. Some of my friends stood on one side of the street and I and another friend stood on the other side of the street. They had dart guns that shoot darts with rubber tips, and I had the larger ball, pump gun. I positioned myself in Eddy’s small front yard and began shooting my new pump gun balls across the street. I shot all six balls and then I ran across the street to retrieve them. That was the last thing I remembered. A car hit me hard. I went flying in the air about 20 feet and landed on the pavement. Everyone thought that I was dead.

Many people were a witness to the event. They heard a car screeching and then they saw my body go flying, about 10 feet in the air and fall 20 feet away onto the pavement. Everyone thought I was dead. My family was in a panic of horror as all the people were trying desperately trying to revive me. An ambulance responded a short time later, and I would recover after six long months in Coney Island hospital, which is the place of my birth.

My family never thought about suing the driver. In those days, people were very respectful to one another. My family knew that I ran out between two parked cars without looking, and the driver never had a chance to stop in time. As an example how people were respectful to one another, my mother once told me how she bought our house. We had a small house on West 7th Street that had two floors and a basement. On the first floor, we had a living room, dining room, and kitchen. On the second floor, we had three small bedrooms and a bathroom. The basement was open room plus a separate room for the oil burner. One day the oil burner man was fixing the oil burner and my mother received a telephone call from the woman who owned the house. This woman was very wealthy and rented the house to my family for $25.00 a month. The woman owner wanted to sell the house to my mother for $1,000. It seems that this wealthy woman felt concerned for my family of five children, and she wanted to sell us the house. The woman became extremely concerned that my family had nowhere to go. My family could not afford $1,000 so the woman offered the house for $700.00. My mother had only $50.00 in the bank so the woman offered her the house for $500.00. The oil burner man, who had been listening to the telephone conversation while he was working, offered to lend my mother the $500.00. The oil burner man told my mother that the family could pay it back a little at a time when she had some extra money. People are always helping one another.

The day I arrived home from the hospital, the man who drove the car that hit me, came to my house with a present. I opened the present and inside was a small set of Lionel Trains. Apparently, my mother told him how I loved trains and so he bought me the set. When I opened the present, I became incredibly happy. This present ignited my fascination with model trains. It was a Hudson steam engine with a few boxcars and a caboose.

That evening, my father came home from work and also bought me a present. It was something that I had never seen before, a remote control car. It was so wonderful. It had this big doughnut type shape antenna on top, and I took it outside in the dark to see if it worked, and it did. The next day, I played with it the entire day. Brother Bill passed by my house to say hello, and he became very impressed with the remote control car. The next day, I invited my friends to come by and play with the remote control car. When my friends arrived, I was searching for the car, but could not find it. I asked my mother where the car is, and my mother said that she gave it away to a handicapped child that could not walk. I was in shock. I only played with it one day. My mother’s story was good, but still it was my possession and I felt that it should have been my choice. It was not my mother’s to give away. I was totally in shock. I said, “What do you mean you gave it away. It’s is not yours to give away.” I had argued with my mother and sisters all day long about this matter, but it seemed that they did not care, and defended my mother's actions. I would have probably been very open to giving things or possessions away. However, just the thought that someone, especially my family, could give something of mine away without telling or confiding in me is a No-No. This action would actually change my feelings toward certain members of my family, and I won't ever trust them for the rest of my life.

My father feeling sorry and embarrassed came home one night with a 4x8 piece of plywood. He told me to come with him to the basement. As I followed, he told me that he was going to set aside a place in the basement where I could setup a train set. He assured me that no one would bother me. He gave me money to buy tracks and supplies and told me to ask someone in the family to take me to get the supplies. I bothered my mother for a week, and although she was against the idea of a train setup in the basement, she finally gave in. The following Saturday, my mother and I took the BMT train and went to Manhattan, a fifty-minute ride. It was the first time I ever was in Manhattan.

I can still remember that day when we got off the train at 23rd street. We had to take the BMT “N” train from my house to 14th Street in Manhattan. Then we had to take the local train one stop to 23rd street. We walk up the subway steps toward the street, and I can remember the tall buildings as we exited the subway. There was this small park called Gramercy Park area with many trees and benches, and holding my mother’s hand, we walked across this park to this gigantic office building. We entered this office building located on 26th street and took the elevator up to the second floor to the Lionel Train showroom. What a world it was. When the elevator door opened, I saw this tremendous beautiful neon sign staring me in the face that read, “Lionel Trains.” My eyes lit up! We walked in and there in the middle of this gigantic room was the most incredible train set-up I had ever seen. It was heaven. There must have been about twenty-five trains going on at one time. The gigantic set had a waterfall with a train going under it. The set also contained mountains with train tunnels everywhere. The control room situated above it had eight transformers going at one time. They had passenger model trains ...they had freight model trains ...they had work trains ...I was watching it for about two hours walking around and around this set that was about 150 feet long. Then my mother took me into another gigantic room where all the Lionel Train sets were on display. Finally, after about an hour, my mother said that we had to leave. As we walked passed the main room, we arrived at this exit counter. The woman at the counter gave me a new Lionel Train catalog. We exited the building and walked across the park to 23rd street again. This time we walked to the left by Madison Avenue.

Next to this subway station, located at 23rd Street and Madison Avenue, was a little store called, “Madison Hardware Co.” In the window of the store was a little sign that read, “Lionel Trains.” We entered. They had every train supply you ever needed and more. They had train gadgets that were not in any catalogs. They also specialized in hard to find trains. As I was looking around the store, I looked up and there it was, “The Texas Special.” It caught my eye. I do not know why.... For some special reason, it was the most beautiful looking engine I had ever seen. It looked exactly like the common Santa Fe, but it was red with silver and had this white star on the front. It was a combined car set with two engines and a middle car. I stared at it for about twenty minutes as my mother was talking to the man about the tracks and accessories. Finally I snapped out of it and began picking out my tracks, switches, houses, etc. Happy and amazed we left the store and hopped back on the subway to return home. Once home, I began to build my train set.

I had memorized the way to the Lionel Train Showroom. That following Monday, I did not go to school. I hopped on the train and went to the showroom by myself.... Something a seven-year-old would not do. I spent the whole day to examine this tremendous set of trains. I would do this about two days a week. I became obsessed. I would also go to Madison Hardware and drool over the Texas Special. The information I gathered by speaking with the workers at the Lionel showroom and Madison Hardware would prove invaluable in building my set at home.

The next year on my birthday, October 1, I would beg my parent’s weeks before hand, to buy me the Texas Special, which cost $50.00. I would save some money and pressure my parents to kick in the rest. Finally, my parents gave in and the Texas Special was mine. Fifty dollars was a lot of money when you consider a train ride or a movie was a quarter. Anyway, my train set was up and running and the “Texas Special,” is my pride and joy.

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Chapter 2 - The Block

2006-04-26T21:54:00.000-04:00

Chapter 2 - The Block

West 7th Street in Brooklyn was a very strange block. It was situated between 86th Street and Avenue V. I knew now that it was a block of the insane, but at my age of eight in 1953 it was weird. I didn’t know why. It was a block of the strangest people or maybe it had a curse. I think all of the above. West 7th Street has these very small-attached houses on one side that was geared toward low-income families. Yet, across the street the houses were much larger and unattached. If one walks up 7th Street from Avenue V here is what you would see:

The first house on the right was the largest house with the most property. It was separated into two family dwellings. One family occupied the first half, and one in the second. The family in the first half was very quiet and almost unnoticeable. The family in the second half was just the opposite. They were very noticeable. The man of the house Pete was this big mouth type character. He was always yelling, especially at his wife. He had two kids, a son, daughter, and a dog. The yelling at his wife had eventually made her a vegetable. She went crazy after a little while, but that did not stop him from continuing to yell at her. His children did not dare to interfere nor did anyone else in the neighborhood.

On the other side of the street was another big house, but not quite as large as the other side. This family was very quiet, but there was something very strange that I still do not know to this day. They had this servant named Mary. Mary was out of her mind. She would do all the dirty work around the house and they would order her around like a dog. They would even threaten her with force.

Walk up the block a little way, and the next house would be a relative of Barney’s Candy Store. Barney’s was located on 86th Street, at the other end of West 7th Street near the train station. They were relatively quiet people who had a daughter that seemed much protected by her mother. I had never seen the daughter wander more than twenty-feet from the house. You could always see the daughter sitting on the stoop everyday.

The next house lived a quiet family that never disturbed anyone on the block. The next house lived a strange family. The father’s name was Pete, just like the name of the crazy Pete across the street. They had a daughter who was very cute except she had a very strangely built. She was sort of a dwarf type. One day, Pete poisoned this large tree in front of his house. I am not sure why he did it, but I think that the tree was pilling too many leaves on his property. Anyway, everyone on the block loved that tree because it shaded our area, and it made the block more beautiful. After a long while, after he poisoned the tree, he made the City of New York remove it. I could remember how sad everyone was when the tree was removed. A strange karma happened following the cutting of the tree. Pete’s wife had suddenly died, and six months later, his daughter died. I knew it was karma.

The next house was this man and wife with no kids and he had just bought this 1963 Chevy Corvair. Neat! Directly across the street and third from my house was a family I really enjoy, Jenny and Al. They had two sons and two daughters and the oldest son was my age and my friend. We went to P.S. 95 together.

Next door to my house lives a new resident, a Jewish Family. This was very strange because my neighborhood is almost all Italian. I welcome a refresher. Besides, they have a cute daughter my age.

Then there is my house.

Directly across the street lives Zitsy Rose, one of my mother’s best friends. She speaks nothing but Italian and is always talking about somebody. She is the neighborhood spy. She is always spying on other people. Then she uses that information to start trouble about them. Nasty Gossip! I do not know what Zitsy means, or if it is the correct spelling? It is Italian for something like, Aunt. Anyway, that is what my mother calls her.

Next door to Zitsy Rose is another new resident. They are just quiet immigrants from Italy. Directly across from them and next door to me on the opposite side of the street is another relative of Barney’s Candy Store, The Marks. They are a strange couple with one daughter. Next door to the Marks live Eddy and his wife. In general, they are very nice except for the fact that Eddy is always out in front of his house with a cigar in his mouth yelling at the kids. He always uses the word “goddamn,” when he yells at us. Example: “Why don’t you goddamn kids go play down the goddamn block!” Eddy would yell.

Next Door To Eddy is a vacant space where a house once burned down. Next to the vacant space live Jimmy and his wife Mary who are very nice people. Directly across the street live my aunt and uncle. Next door to them is an unknown quiet couple. Directly across the street and next to Jimmy, live my schoolmate Mikie and his family. Mikie's three sisters are very hot. Directly across the street from Mikie is another relative of, you guessed it, Barney’s Candy Store, the Reds. I do not know why they call them the Reds; I guess it is because they have red hair. Anyway, that is what everyone calls them. They are nuts, a very strange family. They are always yelling and fighting out in the open. Next door to the Reds are relatives of you guest it again, Barney’s Candy Store and relatives to the Reds.

We have now gone half way up the block. The people that I have mention thus far contain enough insanity on this block to fill Bellevue Hospital. Believe me, as one goes further up the block, it gets worst, and the people stranger.

I need to mention something about Barney’s Candy Store. Barney himself is one of the most wonderful man I had ever met. I would to go into his store everyday for an ice cream float or to get cigarettes for my father. He used to greet everyone by name. Since my neighborhood was mostly Mafia oriented, no one knew who was in the Mafia and who was not, or who was connected and who was not, but many people sort of played the part of being a mafioso. I think no one really knew. This is not to say that Barney’s Candy Store was connected to the Mafia, but his relatives who lived on this block of West 7th Street acted as if they all were.

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Chapter 3 - Judy Weinstein & the garage

2006-04-26T21:53:00.000-04:00

Chapter 3 - Judy Weinstein & the garage

The family who lived next to my house on the left side moved. The house was sold later on to a Jewish family, the Weinstein’s. I noticed that they have a cute daughter named Judy. All the neighbors didn’t like the fact that Jewish people had moved into their Italian neighborhood. I told you that this block is very weird. However, this didn’t bother me a bit. I warmed up to the Weinstein’s immediately, and I quickly became a good friend with them, and I was responsible for making them feel welcome living next to me and on the block. Eventually, Judy and I began hanging-out with one another. Judy came into my house one day, and we were watching TV. Judy decided to sit on my lap and she began moving her ass back and forth on my dick. At first, I felt nothing, but then I began to realize that I was getting sexually aroused for the first time in my life. I did not know anything about sex or having a sexual feeling. I used to occasionally look at a Playboy magazine. I had at the time not realized what she was doing, but when I went to bed that night, I felt and thought of that sexual sensation for the first time. I was thinking about it in bed, and then I suddenly realized what she was trying to do. She was making a sexual advance, and I decided that I liked it. I remembered that every time I pushed her off my lap, she jumped back on it again. She had a wonderful sexy body. The next time that I’m with her, I will pay more attention, but this time I’m going to take advantage of the situation, because now I'm turned on. I did not see her the following day, but we did get together on the weekend on Friday night. I convinced her to take a stroll with me around the block and she agreed. I had my new Silvertone transistor radio that my brother just bought me, and I used it to listen to music every day. My favorite song was, Western Movies by The Olympics. For some reason, the radio station did not play it much, so I would listen to the radio all the time hoping to hear it come on. Judy and I went walking around the block with my radio on medium volume level. I was thinking how I could make a sexual move on her. I knew she liked me and I felt the same. I also knew she was hot, and that I could get more from her, like feel her shapely breasts. We were walking, and I was contemplating for the right moment. All of a sudden, I turned to her and instantly positioned her against the wall and kissed her continuously. She did not say anything so I fondled her breasts.

The next day I went to her house and she was with her little sister Ronda. Judy lured me downstairs to her basement with her little sister Ronda. It was then that I suggested that we play a special, made-up game of Hearts. I wanted to kiss Judy again, but her little sister was also there so I invented this game with my own rules. They didn’t know hher ow to play hearts so it was easy to make up the rules. I told them that if they were dealt a heart, then they had to kiss me. Judy agreed and her little sister went along unknowingly. I shuffled the cards and dealt them in a tricky way to give Judy most of the hearts. We were kissing like crazy. Occasionally, I had to kiss little sister, but when I did, it was very short. When I kissed Judy, it was very, very long kiss. We played the game for about 20 minutes.

That night in our backyard, which was an automobile driveway, which is in-between our houses and the BMT subway, I again cornered Judy. I pressed her against the wall and kissed her like I did the first night, but this time I rubbed my dick against her cunt. Again, she said nothing. This type of cat and mouse game continued for a few months, and without warning her family suddenly moved away. I guess that her family wanted to live in a Jewish section. I was very disappointed that they moved and that they didn’t tell anyone. Judy was the first girl who turned me on and made me think of sex, and how good it was kissing and fondling a girl. However, now that I know what boys and girls do, there are other girls on the block in which to engage, but I will never forget Judy Weinstein.

My new radio is a blast. I am now listening to music very heavily. My three sisters are dancing all the time. Every night I walk into the house my sisters and their friends are dancing. Every time I walked by to pass them, they would grab my arm and put me into the dance. They are dancing the Lindy like crazy. After awhile, I started to enjoy dancing. It was fun. They guided me and I just followed. Soon thereafter, I was getting extremely good. We had a dance contest in my school and I entered it and surprisingly I won first prize. My neighborhood church, Saint-Simon and Jude, began to have dances on Friday nights. It is nice. Everyone is coming closer together, and some of the kids from my school attended. It became a big thing, and everyone enjoyed it. New dances were popping up all the time like, The Stroll. At the church dance, at least twenty people were lined up on each side doing the Stroll. I developed my own style of The Stroll that caught the eye of everyone including the girls. Most of this music and dance craze comes from Dick Clark's American Bandstand. After months and months of dancing, I was beginning to teach my older sisters new steps. Many girls consistently wanted to dance with me. With all the new attention I was getting, I wanted to learn how to play the drums. I asked my parents if I could learn the drums and they said no. They said it was too loud, and that I should find another quieter instrument. I was very disappointed, because I would be very interested in playing the drums. I always thought that if you had a desire for something you would be good at it. Maybe some time in the future. I’ve been hearing a lot about people hanging out at a neighborhood place called M&M’s candy store and you can meet a lot of girls at the church dances.

Meanwhile, there are many new groups, and many new hit songs playing on the radio. Songs, which remained in your memory forever. I didn’t realize it at the time, but it was the birth of the new songwriters, Leiber and Stoller. Their songs are so memorable that they are creating a musical revolution.

M&M’s Candy Store is located on Avenue S and McDonald Avenue in my Brooklyn neighborhood. I met a different group of kids while dancing at the church, and they all hung-out at M&M’s Candy Store. McDonald Avenue is the home of the elevated “F” train. From Coney Island to Church Avenue in Brooklyn, the “F” train is elevated then it becomes a subway underground.

M&M’s had a great sounding jukebox with all the hit 45’s I enjoyed including, In The Still Of The Night, Little Darling by the Diamonds, and of course, Western Movies. I made it a point to go there every night after having dinner with my family. This was where all the boys and girls hung-out that I met at the church dance. M&M’s became so crowded that it attracted the cops who passed repeatedly. After a few months of all these kids hanging out at M&M’s, it started to become a click-gang mentality. Since M&M’s was the place to be, it also would attract many outsiders from different neighborhoods. Probably, because of the many girls who frequent the place.

One of the people that started to hang out with us was Freddie Fry. He was a big fat guy about 300 pounds. He was not from our neighborhood. He was from Eighth Avenue. He was trying to break into our crowd and was bragging about many bullshit things to the girls that hung out with us. After awhile, the girls began complaining to us about his excessive bullshit. He was very aggressive and refused to leave the girls alone. So one night, some of the guys went for a walk with him and gave him a mild beating. Freddie Fry then spread around rumors that he was connected with other gangs, and that he was going to come to M&M’s for retaliation. He threatened to come down with three or four gangs to kick the Asses out of all the guys hanging out at M&M’s. The word got out that Freddie Fry was coming with the gangs, and everyone from miles around showed up at M&M’s to lend support. Freddie Fry never showed up, but the cops did. I knew there was going to be trouble so I took my time eating dinner. I didn’t know what was going to happen, but I knew it was going to be big. When I arrived close to M&M’s, about a half a block away, I noticed about ten police cars and everyone at M&M’s was lined up against the wall. I decided to avoid this by returning back home. The next day, the police closed down M&M’s Candy Store.

My Cousin Joey‘s family moved into the basement apartment in my uncle’s house across the street. There was this big garage located behind the house. We had nothing to do after school so we used the garage to hangout in. We engaged in some crazy activity, which was mostly instigated by my Cousin Joey. For instance, we would give each other strangle holds we learned from watching Wrestling on T.V. until we almost passed out. However, most of the time, we listened and sang to the music on the radio. Leiber and Stoller are still pumping-out the hits. My Cousin Joey found this old acoustic guitar. He brought the guitar into the garage and began strumming on it not knowing any cords. With his body movements and improvisation it was amazing, but he sounded great. I was so impressed that it inspired me. I picked up the guitar and I began mimicking as he did. Joey had a knack of strumming. We would all listen to him strum for hours about nothing. He would be singing out the hit songs while never knowing a single chord. Again, it inspired me so much that I wanted a guitar also.

Every time that I was riding home with my family in the car, and we passed Ave T on West 8th Street, I noticed what appeared to be a possible recording studio. It is a side-street storefront. I decided that I was going to check-it-out. I went over to the storefront one afternoon and walked in. Sure enough, it is a recording studio. As I entered into a dark studio room there were two men listening to music in the console room, which is located in the rear of the storefront. I stood there silently. The two men had not noticed me. Finally, one of the men asked me to come to the console room. I entered the room and they asked me to listen to the music and tell them which song I liked. I automatically felt very comfortable and sat down on a chair to listen. They played about four songs on tape. Then they asked me for my opinion. I told them that I liked the song, Finger Poppin Time. They agreed with me and began to introduce themselves. One guy introduced himself as a record executive and the other guy, who looked like Elmer Fudd from the Bugs Bunny cartoon, introduced himself as the owner of the studio, Mario Rossi. They are both very nice people. I told Mario that it is very strange having a recording studio in this neighborhood. Mario told me that he lived around the corner and that this is his hobby. I became very impressed. I hung out with them for a while and told them about my interest in music. They both said that I had a good ear for music. Mario told me that I was welcome anytime here. I thanked them both and returned home very impressed with that experience. A few months later, the song, Finger Poppin Time became a hit.

My birthday would be arriving soon so I began working on my family to get me a guitar for my birthday. I assured them everyday that a guitar was all I wanted. There was not a day that went by where I did not mention it to them. Finally my birthday had arrived and I was so excited that I was waiting for my entire family to individually arrive home. My father worked, my mother worked, my sisters and brother went to school, and I was home at 3pm. It was now 7pm on my birthday. We were all at the dinner table, and no one mentioned anything about my birthday. I was waiting for someone to say something like, “Oh, today it’s Junior's birthday,” but know mentioned a word about it. They were eating dinner as if there was nothing special about the day. So finally I said, “Today is my birthday!” My sister Jeanette said “O’ yeah. That’s right. We forgot all about it.” My sister looked at my mother and said, “Today is October 1st?” I became so pissed that I jumped from the dinner table and stormed out of the house. I ran across the street where my Cousin Joey was hanging out and Joey asked if they got me the guitar. I said, “No, they didn’t even remember my birthday.” I started crying a little. Then I heard my name being called out, Junior ...Junior... I looked across the street at the front door of my house and an arm exited out with a beautiful Stella guitar attached to it. I freaked. My family had me going way beyond the line. It was not funny. However, I was so happy that I ran across the street grabbed it and ran back to my Cousin and began to strum away. I could not strum like my Cousin, but I tried very hard. My Cousin, by this time had learned a few chords and proceeded to show me some chords. He especially showed me how to play the song Finger Popping Time.

The next day, my Cousin Joey and I were jamming together, somewhat. We both did not know how to play much, but we tried very hard. We were trying to play the song, “Finger Popping Time.” With our great enthusiasm, it was beginning to sound pretty good together. Anyway, we were having a great time. Mikie, who lives across the street, began hanging out with us. Then a couple of days later something would happen that would change our lives forever. My Cousin Joey’s Cousin Jackie showed up at the garage with an electric guitar and amp. He came into the garage and opened the guitar case. As soon as he opened the case, I stared, and my eyes lit up as if I seen an Angel. The guitar looked like some instrument from outer space. Cousin Joey introduced Jackie to Mickie and I saying, “Guys, I want you to meet my Cousin Jackie.” Jackie pulled out his Gretsch guitar, plugged it in to the portable Fender amp, and began to play. We were all in ore. I have never heard such a sound. Jackie was playing, “Walk Don’t Run,” by The Ventures perfectly. He used the tremolo arm on the guitar, although I did not know at the time what a tremolo arm was. It was a tiny, long metal bar that stuck-out from the guitar bridge. When he pulled up or pushed down on it, it would make the strings bend with a twang. As we watched Jackie play songs of The Ventures, (which were very difficult indeed) we were all wishing that we could play just like that, as well as having a guitar like his. Then nicely, Jackie allowed each of us to try holding the guitar, and it was amazing. It made our acoustic guitars seem like toys. Then Jackie patiently showed us how to play, “Walk Don’t Run,” and how to use the tremolo arm. Wow! Then Jackie began teaching us how to play the chords to, “Walk Don’t Run” so that we may someday accompany him while Jackie played the lead part. My Cousin Joey and I practiced for weeks together. Finally, Jackie returned to the garage, and we had a great jam. Now I had to work on my parents for my next birthday to get me an electric guitar and an amp. Jackie appearance into the garage with his Gretsch Guitar and amp inspired me into the world of music.

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Chapter 4 - Chuck and Mike to the office

2006-04-26T21:52:00.001-04:00

Chapter 4 - Chuck and Mike to the office

Goodbye to the bullies
My first guitar
John Dean

Mikie's father knew some people who owned a resort upstate New York. He asked me if I wanted to work with Mikie at the resort for the summer. I wanted to get out of New York so I gladly accepted. Mikie and I arrived at this beautiful resort only to find out that we were going to work as dishwashers. We were introduced to a guy who hardly spoke any English. I don't know what country he was from, but we had great difficulty communicating with this guy. He is the man in charge of the dishwashing section who will be directing us in the kitchen. Then we learned that they didn't have an automatic dishwasher so we had to wash all the dishes by hand. Mikie and I freaked and we were wondering how we were going to wash hundreds of dishes by hand. However, this guy showed us the trick in washing the dishes at a fast pace. We quickly caught on, but there were lots of dishes. In fact, there were thousands of them to wash everyday. This guy had a lot of trouble describing things to us, because of his foreign language and very little broken English. He would say to us, "Do Dish," but what he really meant is, "Do this!" This led us into great confusion for a while until we realized what he had really meant. He would want us to wash a coffee pot and he would point to it briefly and say, "Do dish!" So, Mikie and I would do the dishes. The guy would see us doing the dishes and not cleaning the coffee pot and he would yell at us, "Don't do dish, do dish." Meaning do not do the dishes…do the coffee pot? That is all the English that this guy knew. It is very difficult working and understanding him.

After the first week, Mikie and I became very tired of doing the dishes. Actually, after the first few days of working we were exhausted. The kitchen also did not feed us very well. They gave us only the inexpensive leftover kitchen food to eat. After a few days of eating the measly meals they gave us, Mikie and I began to take remains from a dinner's plate, usually Filet Mignon and other steaks, and we would store them in a private hidden bag in the kitchen for later consumption. We quickly became good friends with the waiters who also weren't being fed properly and they were taking remains from plates also. The waiters had a scam going. When a customer orders steak or Filet Mignon they would continuously fill their table with lots of fresh bread and butter and serve them many other appetizers not normally served and postpone their main course for as long as possible. By the time the vacationer were served their steaks, the costumers could only eat half of it and thus the waiters, Mikie and I would confiscate the leftovers. This led to many remains on their plate for us to all take and later consume.

During our second weekend, The Ink spots were performing at the resort, and I introduced my self to them while they were rehearsing. I already knew and loved their songs and we quickly became good friends. In fact, they took a great liking to me. Their guitarist showed me how to play the lead intro line from one of their famous songs called, If I Didn't Care. I would hang out with the Ink spots as much as I could each day, especially when they rehearsed. They liked me so much that they let me sing the lead vocal part during their rehearsals and they would back me up with vocals. It was amazing and I loved the song, If I Didn't Care. They are such a great bunch of guys.

During one of their rehearsals that I was watching, and I always watched them, a man appeared who was to perform a juggling act for the show. He also liked me a lot and I watched him practice and he was excellent at Juggling. He decided to teach me how to do a little juggling. He asked me to stand on the stage and hold my hand up and as he juggled three bowling pins, he would tumble a pin right at my hand and I caught it. My catching the pin stunned him and he showed me how to tumble it back to him. I was so good that he asked me to perform in his show. We practiced a lot and he taught me how to catch many things and throw them back. He used pins, hoops, and of course, tennis balls. During the Saturday night show, he invited me up to the stage in front of a large audience. We would do the skit that we had learned together. I was excellent as a receiver in whatever he threw me, and the audience gave me a yelling standing ovation. It is my first experience of being on stage with a live audience and I remained very Kool. I knew then, that the stage is where I eventually want to be. I felt very comfortable with The Ink spots and the juggler. The Ink Spots were my turn-on into the music life. They were, and the experiences with them, were the height of this terrible job that we had washing dishes.

Meanwhile, the dishes were getting out of hand. The resort had hundreds of people having breakfast, lunch and dinner. The dishes seemed endless. In the morning, by the time we finished cleaning the breakfast dishes it was about 11:00 - 11:30AM. Then we had a couple of hours off and then we had to clean the lunch dishes which lasted to 4:00 - 4:30PM. Again we had a couple of hours off and began cleaning the dinner dishes which lasted to about 10:00PM. Everyday was like that. Not only that, but lunch is a buffet. There are no waiters. They wanted Mikie and me to bus the tables after lunch in addition to us washing the hundreds of dishes. Mikie and I decided to hide and disappear after breakfast to avoid the lunch clean up. As soon as we finished washing the breakfast dishes, Mikie and I would disappear up until 3:00pm. Way after lunch had been finished. This way we would sly away from busing the tables and the washing. They would constantly page us over their mike system, "Chuck and Mike to the office! Chuck and Mike to the office!" They paged us so much that many people eventually wanted to meet us, because we sort of became famous. When they paged us the speakers were everywhere on the grounds of the resort. Eventually, everyone wanted to know who Chuck and Mike were. I can over hear customers saying, and no one knew us, "I wonder who Chuck and Mike are?"

During our third week, Mikie and I could no longer take it. We freaked out, and we lost our minds! The dishes, schedule, and the robbing and eating leftovers completely overwhelmed us. The resort eventually had to stop paging us and instead sent spies out to locate us and our hiding spots. They would send people out to search for us, because they didn't want our names on the paging system any more. It was funny, because we were becoming very famous, but they would find us, and we were forced to return to work. Then one day shortly thereafter, we had to bus and clean all the dishes after this special gathering lunch buffet, and there were 800 people in this special group who had just finished eating the afternoon brunch. When Mikie and I walked into the big room and looked at all the tables, we asked each other, "Where are we going to start?" I room was tremendous. We began by stacking all the dishes on top of one another after dusting the remains off in a pale on two very large tables. When we made a tremendous high pile, and they were very high stacks of dirty dishes, we stood back to take a look at the piles of dishes and said to each other that we must now clean all those dishes. Mikie and I lost our minds. We thought about Coney Island and how we would throw the balls to break the dish for a prize. Then Mikie and I both said that we were not going to wash those dishes. We grabbed beer bottles and began throwing them at the dishes to knock them off the table. We destroyed a thousand dishes. When everyone outside the room heard the dishes crashing, we quickly ran to the table and kicked the legs of the table and we told them that the weight of the dishes collapsed the table and it gave way. They of course didn't believe us and quickly called Mikie's father in Brooklyn to take us back home. It would take a few days for Mikie's father to arrive. In the meantime, Mikie and I lived like kings. We had our room and didn't have to work or look at dishes ever again. No one bothered us anymore, because they thought we were crazy. We are!

Mikie and I returned to Brooklyn gladly. The job upstate was a work person's nightmare. We had no idea whatsoever that we would be working continuously almost the entire day, everyday. I never have seen so many dishes in my life. When we returned home to Brooklyn, it was a welcome relief. What we had thought would be a wonderful working vacation in a quiet resort in the New York Catskills Mountains, surrounded by available teenage daughters of vacationers, turned out to be just the opposite. Yes, there were young girls floating around away from their parents looking for something to get into, but we were continuously working so much we had no time at all to mingle with anyone.

Now back in Brooklyn, Mikie began hanging out with a good musician guitarist named Jackie Dina. He seemed very nice when I met him and developed a casual friendship with him, but it turned out that Jackie was not such a nice person after all. I learned quickly that he had a bully attitude. Jackie lived on the same block of 7th Street, only a few avenues away between Avenue T and Avenue S. After a while, he stopped coming to Joey's garage to jam with us, but now that I know him, and he knew me, our friendship would slowly turn into a nightmare. I used to run into him sometimes after school during my walk home, and he used to say some arrogant and threatening gestures toward me for no apparent reason. I couldn't figure-out why he would suddenly do this without any reason. I guess he wanted to show the other kids that he was tough and I was an easy target. He would call out to me and when I answered him back nicely, he would run up to me, grab me, throw me up against the wall or a parked car and slap me softly in the face. Then he would laugh and walk away. He enjoyed acting like a big shot. Therefore, every time I walked home from school, I had to look ahead to try to avoid him. This problem led me to also avoid Mikie, because they became friends with each other.

I also had eventually learned that my Cousin Joey is also a bully. This I did not realize for many, many, years. Joey pretended to protect me, but as I got older, I had learned that he was the instigator responsible for getting many kids in the neighborhood to pick fights with me. He was Mr. nice guy in appearance, but caused all the trouble without me ever thinking he was the cause of it all. The biggest bully on my block is Rudy. Rudy lived at the end of my block and he would try to pick on me all the time. It got even worse when my Cousin Joey moved onto my block. I wondered why? I managed to keep Rudy under control for many years, because I was a good friend with Brother Bill. Rudy, as well as everyone was afraid of Brother Bill. But now that Brother Bill had moved away, I had to deal with a whole new crew of bullies. They are the only friends and so I had no choice, but try to deal with it. I always hoped that my Cousin Joey would be my next Brother Bill, and protect me from Rudy and Jackie. It appeared that he did protect me, but I could not understand why I got picked on more often now that my Cousin Joey has moved on the block. I didn't know it at the time, but I would eventually learn about it and put the pieces of the puzzle of these happening together, that my Cousin Joey used to tell Rudy and Jackie to pick on me in his presence so Joey could step in and protect me to win my confidence. He would tell people to pick on me, watch for a few moments, and then Joey would step in and say, "Leave him alone." I fell for it line and sinker, but eventually I realized it all, but I needed to find a way out of this mess to find someone new to hangout with. I needed to be away from all these bullies if I am going to gain some peace and tranquility in my life. These guys all live on my block. How am I supposed to avoid them?

The middle of the summer is approaching, and my Cousin Joey wanted me to go half with him on a purchase of a locker at Steeplechase Park Pool in Coney Island. My Cousin still had my some of my confidence so I talked to my parents and my father thought it was a good idea. I didn't know it at the time, my Cousin didn't tell me, but Rudy would also obtain a locker at Steeplechase pool. I would eventually learn that my Cousin wanted to be with Rudy and couldn't afford a locker by himself. Thus, my Cousin Joey asked me to go half with him on the locker. Steeplechase Pool is a wonderful place to be in the summer. It is a lot of fun swimming, diving, girls and just being in Coney Island. It was the best pool in all New York. You could walk out on the Coney Island beach and return back to the pool at anytime, and the girls were plentiful. The first few weeks at Steeplechase Park were great. Cousin Joey and I walked along the beach with our guitars, and when we saw some nice girls we would sit on their blankets and begin jamming. The girls were very impressed and often treated us to some good food. After a couple of weeks, Rudy unexpectedly appeared into the picture. We ran into him on the beach. That was the time I learned that Rudy had also obtained a locker at Steeplechase pool. From then on, my Cousin Joey began hanging out with Rudy all day long at the beach both disappearing away from me. I am now all by myself and alone. Everyday I would go there on the train with my Cousin and he would meet up with Rudy and they both would disappear away from me quickly. After that, they were nowhere to be found for the entire day. They never hung out at the pool. I would also learn that Rudy and Joey needed to find a way to get rid of me completely. Shortly thereafter, I returned from the pool to my locker to obtain my lunch which my mother prepared for me in a paper bag only to find that the bag my lunch was in had been burned to a crisp, and the sandwiches were ruined. Someone apparently had set it on fire and placed it back into the locker. Since my Cousin Joey was the only one who had a key, I confronted him. He blamed it all on Rudy. Our parents gave us limited money so I had to go without eating all day. he next day, the same thing happened again, and again Joey blamed Rudy. Crying in frustration and hunger, I asked my Cousin why he let Rudy into our locker. He replied that he was with Rudy, and when he opened the locker, Rudy would set fire to your lunch. I told my Cousin not to let Rudy near the locker. Again, I had to go without eating for the entire day. The next day it happened again. This time I got pissed and confronted Rudy directly. Rudy denied it all and told me my Cousin was doing it. Then I confronted my Cousin and he said Rudy was lying. This wonderful locker at Steeplechase Park pool has turned into a nightmare.

During the first few weeks at Steeplechase pool, my Cousin and I would bump into Savario and his mother who were soaking the sun on a blanket at Bay 14 next to Steeplechase Park. Savario's family you may recall had the first house located on my block (street). They were the family I described that had this crazy servant/slave Mary. I never really knew Savario very well. He never hung out with us on the block or ever participated with anybody. I remembered saying hello to his mother every morning when I walked to school. Savario also had an interest in guitars and music. When we had bumped into him on the beach, he saw me carrying my guitar and would say to me, "That's a nice Stella guitar you have." We started to talk guitars and music briefly, and then my Cousin Joey and I continued on our way. Savario's mother was warm and welcoming and Savario seem to be a very nice guy.

Being disgusted now with Joey, Rudy, and the entire situation, I strolled alone along the beach to where Savario and his mother were parked. I told them what was happening with Rudy and Joey and I asked them if they would mind if I went with them and stayed with them at the beach everyday. I told them that I had no one to be with at the beach. Savario and his mother welcomed me dearly. Savario's mother told me that the come everyday to the beach rain or shine and they take their car. She said you are most welcome with us and we will take care of you. From now on, I'm going to kiss those idiots goodbye. Savario and his mother each had a locker at Schrott's Baths, which was located at the end of Stillwell Avenue where it meets with the boardwalk. Savario took me into Schrott's Baths and showed me around the place. Schrott's doesn't have a pool. It's just a place to have a locker and clean up and they had great steam rooms. Nice and Hot! Savario shared his locker to me and everything was set anew. I withdrew my belongings from Steeplechase and put it all into Savario's locker. I will now go to the beach everyday with Savario's family in peace. After that, Savario and I quickly became good friends, and I was beginning to be a regular on the beach and boardwalk. Savario's family knew everyone at Coney Island. They were regulars.

One night hanging out at Savario's house, Savario took me into his bedroom and showed me his beautiful electric guitar. We played around on it for a bit. The entire family was so wonderful. Again, the next day, I went with them to Bay 14 at Coney Island. It appears that he and his mother were Bay 14 bums. That is, they attended Bay 14 every day rain or shine, and knew everybody on the beach and the boardwalk. This turned out to be one of the happiest times of my life. I felt so relieved from Rudy and Joey, and best of all I could hang out with Savario all the time at his big house after the beach day ended and continuing in the winter. I would not have to deal with Rudy and Joey ever again. I met many wonderful people through Savario's family hanging out at Bay 14. My summer turned out to be the best summer I had ever had, thanks to them. I also felt like one of the family, and this continued for many years. Savario and his family became a very important step to my future in my life.

My Cousin Joey was still was not completely out of the picture, because he lived across the street from my house and he was a part of my family. My family hung out with his family all the time. My father participated in Pinnacle games with Joey's father, my Uncle Joe, so it was unavoidable, but at least I could walk away any time to go hang out with Savario and his family.

In the fall months as school began, my Cousin Joey's father had just bought his son a new Gibson Stereo electric guitar and a Fender amp. When Joey first opened the case to show me the guitar, my eyes stared and gleaned. It was an expensive beautiful guitar. The guitar itself was about $400.00, but he also got a Fender amp. The amp was maybe, $250.00? All I know was that I wanted one too. My birthday was coming near so I pressured my family into buying me an electric guitar too. I talked about it over and over to them as I did the birthday last year to get the Stella guitar. I had heard from Savario that there was a great store to buy guitars, Sam Ash on Utica Avenue in downtown Brooklyn. So the next day, Savario took me to see Sam Ash. When we entered the store, I could not believe my eyes. I had never seen so many beautiful guitars in all of my life. Every company, every color, and best of all, they had a private room where they would be happy to plug in any guitar you wanted to try-out. Savario then pointed to a Fender Stratocaster that was sitting in the top showcase located about 15 feet off the ground. I did not notice it when we walked in until he pointed at it. As soon as my eyes connected with it, I fell in love, as though it was the sexiest and most beautiful woman I have ever seen. I asked the sales clerk if I could try that Fender Strat out, and the sales clerk immediately said, "Why sure!" Savario and I went into this little room and the sales clerk brought in the Strat and set it up to the amp. The sound was ready and he handed the guitar to me. I started playing and Savario had a big grin on his face. Then Savario said to me that if I put the three-way switch in between the notches of the point connections that I could get the sound that the Strat was famous for. I did not know what he was talking about so Savario positioned the switch in between the normal connections, and wow. The sound was incredible. We played the Strat for about an hour, and the sales clerk finally told us that we were taking up too much time. Savario and I were convinced that this was the guitar to buy. It was very expensive, $225.00 without the case or the amp.

The next day, I began talking to my mother about the guitar at Sam Ash. My mother did not want to hear it. She told me that I should finish school and apply for a job in a bank. She told me that this guitar stuff was getting too much out of hand. I had no other choice, but to go plead with my father. My father is easier to talk with, and is very giving most the time. He never avoided a conversation, and if you ever felt like doing something, he was always encouraging. I talked with him about it and he said that he would eventually speak with my mother who was the boss. My birthday had arrived and with the help of my father, my mother took me to Sam Ash to only to look. We arrived and went through the whole process of plugging the guitar in and playing it in the little room. My mother asked the sales clerk how much it would cost with the little Fender amp. The sales clerk came back with the figures and said, "With the case and amp it would come to $365.00, complete." I looked at my mother and my mother looked at me in disgust and said, "OK, I hope you're happy?" My dream had just come true.

That evening, I went to Savario's house to show him the Strat. Savario took out his camera and he took pictures of me with the guitar. Savario and I spent the rest of the evening jamming and taking photos. I plugged his guitar into my amp that had two input jacks, and we strummed together all night long in his bedroom.

Now my Cousin Joey and I both had a guitar and amp. Meanwhile, Mikie had seen all this and he proceeded to buy a set of Gretsch drums. Now everyone had an instrument except Rudy who began to slowly shy away. Mikie began setting up jam sessions in his basement, because that was where he kept the drums, but Mikie was not very good. He had a big timing problem and Joey and I purposely ignored it, but as Mikie struggled to play on time, he knew something was wrong when we all look at him every time he went off beat and it was many times that he went off beat. In any case, it was nice to play with drums. I still did not like being with Cousin Joey too much although even though we both now had instruments. I was still mostly hanging out with Savario. Joey eventually met some other musician friends and they formed a band. Mikie still was hanging out with the bully Jackie. Jackie was a great funky guitarist and also played the drums. Jackie's father was a former great drummer. Even though we all had musical instruments now, I continued to stay away from Mikie and Joey and continued to remain with Savario.

A year had past and after another summer of hanging out on Bay 14 with Savario and his family, I finally entered Lafayette High School. I was a sophomore. Cousin Joey was a junior and Rudy was a senior. I did not know it, but my Cousin Joey was singing A Cappella with a couple of schoolmates. Joey, knowing I was about to enter Lafayette told me about the singing group and asked me to meet him during the forth period. When I received my school schedule, my forth period was occupied with an English class. I told my Cousin Joey, who's forth period was lunch that I had a class at this time period and he suggested that I cut it. I was very curious about this singing group; I did not even attend the English class on the first day. I needed to check this group out. I met my Cousin at the hot dog cart outside the school and he introduced me to these two guys, Ritchie and Anthony. Ritchie was a trumpet player in school and Anthony just liked to sing. After exchanging greetings, we all went to the third floor hallway in the rear of the school by the gymnasium. Joey, Ritchie, and Anthony began singing and they sounded good. They had been working on their three-part harmonies for about a year. What they needed was a lead singer. I did not have a good lead singing voice, but I could sing with a great deal of soul and enthusiasm. I told the guys to sing something easy like, "In the Still of the Night." They began singing the three-part harmony, and when my lead vocal entered the arrangement, it sounded fantastic. I was singing very seriously, and Joey, Ritchie, and Anthony were all smiles while singing. I sang a mean lead. It was hard for them to keep a straight face, because it sounded so good with a lead singer. We all sang together for the entire one-hour period. I was very happy and honored to sing the lead part, and with the acoustics of the hallway, it sounded very big.

The next day, we did it again. The following day, we changed locations and moved to the front hallway of the school. A crowd started gathering and even the teachers were amazed to watch us. The Dean came by and asked us reluctantly to move somewhere else, because we were keeping postponing the students from attending their class on time. No matter where in school we sang, there was always one guy who hung out with us constantly, and his name is John Dean.

John Dean was a Lafayette drop out. He was 19 years old and did not want to leave the school. He would purposely fail his subjects so he would not graduate. As long as he was in school, he was happy. John Dean also was a school clown. He was always fooling around. Everybody knew of him and he was famous in Lafayette. He had a similar resemblance to the actor James Dean, but this John Dean was famous for his fake epileptic fit. I encountered John Dean before I actually met him on my first day at school. After I had sung with the guys, and they returned to class, I had a lunch period and thus went to the hot dog cart across the road to have a dog. John Dean was behind me and he asked for one with mustard and onions. The man gave it to him, he paid the man, and all of a sudden after his first bite, the hot dog went shooting straight up in the air. The hot-dog vender freaked. John Dean went falling to the floor and started kicking and jerking. He was making a short squealing sound like one I had never heard before.... Weeeek.... Weeeek...Weeeek! I became so frighten, I did not know what to do? This person came running over and yelled, "Leave him alone.... Do not touch him ...he is having an epileptic fit. The fit lasted for about five minutes and then this person helped him stand up and he acted as normal. He picked up his hot dog of the floor and he and this other guy who helped him just walked away as if nothing had ever happened. After school, I told the story to my Cousin and he started laughing saying, "That's John Dean. The fit is not real. He just does it as a goof." He continues to say that the guy who ran over when John Dean had the fit is his partner Ritchie. "Wow!" I told my Cousin, "I thought it was real." My Cousin just laughed and said that I would be seeing a lot of John Dean. Sure enough, I had John Dean in my wood-shop class on Tuesday and Thursday.

My wood-shop class was very interesting. For one, my teacher had this beautiful sexy female student as a so-called secretary of some sort and she was stunning and sat at his desk quietly all day. I do not know what the girl did, but in a class of all males, she stood out strongly. All she did was sit next to the teacher. The teacher did absolutely no teaching in the class. All he did was talk to the sexy female student. We had two one-hour periods of wood-shop. After the first hour we would take a fifteen minute break. The teacher made everyone leave the class, locked the room, leave somewhere with the female student, and returned in fifteen minutes to re-open the class. A few days later, I saw John Dean with this one-foot long 4X4 block of wood attached to his assigned lathe. Curious, I went over to John and asked him what he was working on. John replied, "Just wait you'll see." I was working on building my project, but I was still curious what John was working on. After about 50 minutes, John had this one-foot long 4X4 block of wood to the size of a fat toothpick. I said, "John, what are you doing?" John replied, "Just watch." The bell rang for the end of the first period and we went through the usual process I described above. We all exited the classroom; the teacher locked the door, and left with his secretary. John Dean took the fat toothpick he was working on and shoved it into the door keyhole. Fifteen minutes later the teacher returned with his secretary and tried to put the key into the lock, but it wouldn't work. The teacher tried repeatedly while John Dean was smirking in the corner. I was trying desperately to hold a straight face. The teacher turned to all of us and said, "I can't open the door so you kids should go out to the school yard and play for the remainder of the second period". All the students of the class were joyous for John Dean who had already borrowed a bat and ball from the Gym to play softball in the schoolyard. Apparently, John knew what the next move was going to be just like a great chess player. John Dean. What a trip!

A few weeks later, I was in my Science class and we all were having a test. It was about 10:30am, and all was peaceful and quiet. Everyone was concentrating on his or her test papers. All of a sudden, we all heard this big scream coming from the schoolyard. Then I heard that familiar sound, Weeeek.... Weeeek.... Weeeek! I knew it. We all jumped up, including the teacher and we all looked out the window, and there was John Dean lying on the concrete in the middle of the baron schoolyard, performing a faked epileptic fit. He disrupted the entire school for about ten minutes and everyone was laughing as they watched him.

A few weeks after that, I was heading to my next class one afternoon after returning from lunch, when I saw all this commotion in the hallway. From what I could tell, it looked like a brawl. I heard voices yelling and screaming at one another calling each other names. Whom ever was fighting there was a big crowd that gathered around it. Then I saw the school Deans fearlessly running down the hall to break up the fight. I also ran behind the Dean to observe what was happening. The Dean broke through the crowd, and there was John Dean and his partner Ritchie playing patty cake. I busted out laughing. The Deans were totally pissed and shocked.

It was now the end of the school year, and again John Dean purposely was short credits for graduating. The Dean had called his parents to school and advised his parents that if John does not graduate next semester they had no other choice, but to expel him completely. His parents assured the Dean that John would graduate Lafayette by the following January. We will wait and see.

My Cousin Joey was promoted to a senior and quickly joined a band that I had heard was very good, and that they were about to make a record. Rudy graduated and immediately got involved with his older brother in a jewelry repair business, and that was great for me, because I would now almost never see this bully again. Our school singing group had dissipated for the summer. Anthony had graduated, but Ritchie was interested in forming a group with me during the summer months. He knew of another guitar player and drummer who would be interested in forming a new group and I told him that I would be in contact with him, but I was looking forward to having another great summer at the Bay 14 beach with Savario and his family again.

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Chapter 5 - The Church

2006-04-26T21:52:00.000-04:00

Chapter 5 - The Church

The church, Our Lady of Grace, was holding a dance in July, and they were looking for a band to play a few songs at the dance. I called Ritchie the trumpet player and asked him if he still had access to the other guitarist and drummer. He said he had the drummer but not the guitarist. I told him no problem, because I wanted Savario to play with us anyway. We then arranged to hold practice in Ritchie´s basement. We all got together to rehearse a few days later one evening at Ritchie´s house. We were going to learn some of the Ventures tunes like Walk Don´t Run, Perfidia, and a Santo & Johnny tune, Sleepwalk. I was very excited to play for an audience for the first time. I had great enthusiasm in seeing this performance get off to a great start. We practiced and practiced. Savario was a good player and performer. He moved about during performance as if he was Elvis. He inspired me to move all with the music. Since the songs we were playing were all instrumentals, I decided to sing a vocal, LaBamba.

The evening had arrived and Ritchie´s father took all the instruments and us to the church. We met the pastor and set up the instruments. The crowd started pilling in, but we could not see them because we were busy setting up on stage behind the curtain. About 40 minutes later the pastor asked us if we were ready, and we plugged in our instruments and proceeded to tune-up. We were ready. The pastor introduced us as the Boys from Lafayette High School. As the pumped-up crowd began their applause, the curtain opened. I saw the crowd and all the people looking at me and I went into shock and froze. The other guys were looking at me to start the count-off, and I had to try to gain my composure. Then Bobby the drummer started the intro to Walk Don´t Run under Savario´s suggestion, and we began to finally play. We all kicked into the groove and I now returned back to normal. I was playing the lead part therefore; I had to force my mind into concentration. Once I was concentrating in what I was playing, the crowd no longer mattered. After the song ended, we received a good applause that made me and the guys feel much more comfortable. Then Ritchie took the solo on Perfidia and the crowd enjoyed it. We then slowed the pace down with Sleepwalk, so everyone would cuddle close with one another. It was beautiful to watch from on stage all the kids dancing close with one another. Then as the slow song ended, I sang the up tempo song LaBamba. The crowd became surprised and went nuts over my vocal of LaBamba. After we finished LaBamba, we received a fantastic applause as the stage curtain closed. The Pastor congratulated us and invited us back again. What a night!

Savario´s father knew some people at a VFW post on 86th Street who would not mind paying two guitarists playing live music on Friday and Saturday nights. They did not want a drummer because then they would have to obtain a Cabaret License. Savario and I were very interested. We thought that it would be a great place to practice and get paid at the same time. The people at the VFW were an older crowd so we had to learn some older music that they would enjoy. We went to the music store to shop for some sheet music. There was so much music to obtain that we did not have enough money to buy it all. Savario´s father came across a Fake Book, which was a black market book of all the old standards. Hundreds of songs in one book for $10.00! We bought the book and started learning all the songs. Misty, Beer Barrel Polka, Peg of my Heart, The Breeze and I, Talk of the Town, Sentimental Journey, etc.

It did not take us long to get it together and we opened at the VFW post two weeks later. The people really enjoyed us and they told us that we could play their every weekend. It was a very mellow job. We could play as long as we liked.... We could take a break as long as we like ... the people just enjoyed having us around. We even threw in a few Italian songs we had learned from our fathers. Savario and I received $10.00 each for an evening. I immediately told my mother that I had a paying gig at the VFW post, and she said, Why are you wasting your life with that guitar? I got very pissed off and stormed out of the house.

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Chapter 6 - The Family

2006-04-26T21:50:00.000-04:00

Chapter 6 - The Family

My family was certainly very strange or maybe it's just typical that famlies are strange. My mother is an Army sergeant / drill instructor type. My father was a tranquil wonderful person whom the whole family loved. My oldest sister Rosetta was a very nice person except she used to bust my balls continuously. My next to oldest sister Marie was the cream of the crop. She is one of the most beautiful people I have ever known or met even though she's my sister. My youngest sister, who was about 6 years older than me, was a rat, but she was also very funny too. She would definitely stab you in the back, and then play dumb. Despite this personality, she was a clown and fun to watch most of the time. She has the making of a lesbian/dike, and until this day, I would not know for sure, but I would not be surprised if she is.

Growing up under this family was very difficult and stressful. To begin with, they had no respect for my personal belongings, and they always picked on me. I guess that is typical of being the youngest, but not every where. I was a loner, but not by choice. My brother and sisters were so much older than I that we were in different generations. My birth was an accident, or so I was told. My mother did not want another child, but she became pregnant, and they finally decided to have me. So much for pro life! I would have preferred not being born actually. If I had to separate members of the family by demeanor, I would have to say that my Brother Tom and Sister Jeannette were like my mother. My sister Marie and I are like my father and my sister Rosetta somewhere in the middle or a life of her own.

My mother hated with a passion anything about playing a guitar or being a musician. I still do not know why she bought the instruments for me if she was so against it.... I believe maybe my father had something to do with that decision. She only knew one thing, and that was the way she lived her life, to achieve something, you must work very hard. She knew nothing more than that. I personally agree with that theory, but what did she really mean? She meant that you get a job working for someone, who provides you the opportunity to exert physical labor, and then you are paid for it. You continue doing that until you build enough money and then you spend the money on whatever it is you want.

For me, that is certainly one way to do it and probably the way most people view life. However, that is certainly not the only way. A bricklayer works very hard, putting the heavy bricks together and he gets paid for his efforts. A lawyer works very hard in school, not particularly physical labor, and yet he is paid much more than the bricklayer. A person works hard regardless of how much he earns. Should a lawyer earn more money than an artist? Should a doctor earn more than a teacher? The one thing they all have in common is that they all work hard. The difference being, the way the American system is structured. Is it Capitalism! My mother and father are Italian immigrants. When they arrived here, they were, in my opinion, under a different American system. The American system is continuously changing day by day. My mother has no conception of these changes. In any event, I do not agree with my family´s perception in where I should be going in my life even though I welcome suggestions. My thoughts are that you should raise your child with love, understanding, and compassion and let them find their way. Your child should venture in any direction with personal guidance, and if they should venture in a direction of their choice, then they should have their parent´s full support. That is my philosophy. Therefore, there is a conflict of philosophies especially in my family. My older sister Rosetta and my younger sister Jeannette have the same philosophy as my mother, and therefore do not like my being a musician. My younger sister Jeannette often remarked to me that if I did not get a normal job, I would be very sorry in my future years. Maybe that is true, but I would have a much fuller life experiencing many other things and places.

My brother used to buy me the greatest presents for my birthday. When my birthday was near, I used to wait patiently for him to arrive home because I knew he was carrying a big present. He was greatly loved throughout the family although he mostly was not around or available too much. No one really ever knew where he was so he was a great mystery.

My father was really a mellow person, but can get tough when needed. As said before he was a barber. He was not too much of a hassle except at times he did some very stange and weird things. For instance: On Sunday mornings he used to call us by individual names and we had to go to the kitchen where he was waiting for us to suck the yoke out of an egg. That is right! He would poke a hole in the bottom of the egg and we had to suck the egg out of the shell. It was a horror. If we refused he gave us a beating, and we would still had to do it. I really believe that he thought that it was a very healthy thing to do. He used to do it without a problem and liked it. The other weird thing was that he would take everyone´s temperature every so often by inserting a thermometer in our ass hole. He did it respectfully, but nevertheless he did it anyway. Other than those two weird things, he was a loving father who would do anything for us. My father bought a 1959 Chevy, which he took the family around in. It was a hip car and everyone on the block admired it. One of his kicks was to take the family to the movies every Saturday night. It was a must. Everything he decided to do was a necessity with him and the family. Every Friday night, when he returned from work he used to bring us candy bars. That was great, and we all used to be waiting for him. There was not a Friday night that he did not bring candy bars. My father used to lend my brother and sisters his car anytime they needed it with out a hassle. He was indeed a great guy. I believed he was the most loved by the family because my mother was much disliked. If my father did not behave, my mother would literally beat him up. I have seen my mother grab a spaghetti strainer and slap my father across the head with it because he did not behave or do something she wanted. Seeing that was a very shocking and dramatic experience for me that I will never forget or ever except such behaviour.

My grandparents had a house in a little town called Seldon, in Long Island. It used to take about two hours to drive there from Brooklyn, and it was one of the happiest times of my life. It was quiet with dirt roads and the whole family used to go there. My Cousin Joey and his family also were there. The house had no bathroom or toilet. It had an outhouse. In the morning, the milkman would bring fresh milk with the cream on top. My Cousin Joey and I used to walk through the serene peaceful wooded areas to pick wild berries, and there were thousands of them. We had hammocks tied to the trees in the backyard, and after lunch, we used to sleep on the hammocks without hearing a sound except for the wind and the birds. After dinner, our fathers used to play the Italian songs on mandolins for hours. Our families spent months throughout the summer together, and it was probably the one event that I looked forward to always. When I was about eight years old, my grandparents died. The Seldon house was eventually sold, but that experience would remain in my heart and memories, and will shape my life for many years to come.

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Chapter 7 - Change of Events

2006-04-26T21:49:00.001-04:00

Chapter 7 - Change of Events

There would be some negative and positive events that would trigger major changes to me, and for West 7th Street.

My Cousin Joey´s new band had made this instrumental record which was very impressive called, "Last Stop". When I heard it, I knew it was a great instrumental and going to be a hit. But before their record company had time to release it, another company suddenly became aware of it and quickly duplicated it under another name with a different group artist. The rival company quickly released it and it became an instant hit. Joey´s band and company were taken by surprise, and thus my Cousin Joey and his band became extremely depressed.

My older sister Rosetta got married to this very nice man named, Sal. They had a great and fun wedding. Shortly thereafter, my brother Tom was drafted into the Army. My family and I went to visit him at Fort Dix were he was stationed, and he looked great in his army uniform. A few months later, my brother was shipped overseas to be stationed in Germany. My family and especially myself, missed him very much and the next 17 months would be very lonely for me. We were very close, and we shared the same bed...and I was very dependent on him being there. I think his departure in the Army became a surprizingly dramatic experience in my life, as well as for my family.

Now my sisters Marie and Jeannette would share the same room, and I would have a bed in a room all by myself, but it will be a single bed. That is a dramatic experience by its self. I began this new life by working out in my bed. Every night, I did 50 sit-ups. When I shared the bed with my brother, we used to wrestle almost every night. My brother used to put me in a headlock or twist my arm until I screamed, and still sometimes, he refused to let me go even if I begged him. Wrestling was a big craze, and many people mimicked it including my brother with me. He used all these different types of wrestling holds on me. I decided to workout so that when my brother returned, I would be a match for him. In any case, this is a new drastic era change in my life.

You may recall, that Jackie and Mikie had begun hanging out together. Well, about a year later. I heard that something seriously happened to Mikie. I do not know the true story, but from what everyone is talking about, Jackie and Mikie were doing the drug LSD, and Mikie sort of flipped-out perminantly. That is what we all, on the block, had heard. We also heard that Mikie was in the hospital and it would be along time before he could possibly come home again. That was all anyone knew. Someone did occasionally bump into Jackie and asked him what had happened to Mikie, but he played dumb and denied any knowledge or involvement.

In addition, not too long after Mikie became sick, Mickie´s father began acting very strange and this went on for about a year. He would occasionally dress up as a woman, and storming-out of his house and began walking up and down the block talking and laughing with the neighbors dressed as a woman. It seems that Mikie´s family is taking a big hit! First, Mikie takes LSD and flips out perminantly and then his father starts dressing up as a woman. Mickie has two of the most sexy sisters on the block. Very Sexy!

After a bit, my cousin Joey graduated Lafayette High School and started working full time with my brother-in-law Sal in the drapery business. I have also been helping my older sister´s husband Sal with the installation of draperies every Saturday morning since he married my sister Rosetta. He would give me five bucks, but now I hear that Joey is working with him full time.

And finally, I was offered a part-time job through a friend that worked with this cabinet delivery man. My friend no longer wanted to do it anymore so he offered it to me. It was an opportunity to make some extra money so I took it. We delivered cabinets for this cabinet store on Avenue U, located on the corner of West 8th Street. The job was from 6pm to 8:30pm and the delivery man, Tony, was a great person and he gave me five bucks each time he asked me to go deliver with him. It was an easy job and Tony made it a lot of fun. It was not everyday that I had to work, it was mostly on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. The job had no schedule and I never knew if Tony needed me or not. I just went about my kid-life and when i was needed for delivery, Tony used to pass by my house to look for me or ask my family where I was. Then, he would track me down, find me playing somwhere, and I would join him to work. It´s always nice to have some extra cash. I enjoyed it, and Tony taught me how to move cabinets through small spaces, without scrtching them, which is a difficult feat if you don't know how.

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Chapter 8 - Ralphy and Joey

2006-04-26T21:49:00.000-04:00

Chapter 8 - Ralphy and Joey

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.

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Chapter 9 - The Four Corners, Long Island, New York

2006-04-26T21:47:00.001-04:00

Chapter 9 - The Four Corners, Long Island, New York

Aldo’s parents were very nice. His mother only spoke Italian, and his father spoke broken English. They had bought a house at the far-east side of Brooklyn. When they arrived in America they opened a food service business in the East Village in Manhattan called Jumbo Food Shop, and after a couple of years, they had bought their first house in America, which eventually became our new place to rehearse.

Aldo is a very determined guy. When I first met him, he did not know how to play the drums. In a short time he had learned and bought a new set of drums. He had also learned on his own, how to play the songs we knew. I was shocked that he progressed this far. With such enthusiasm, I not only affirmed his acceptance in the band, but I gave him the freedom to take part in any business matters evolving the band if he wanted. I had no interest in business. Aldo accepted and thus got us this weekend gig in Long Island. It was a club located in the Five Points area of Long Island. It was Friday night and we had just finished out second set when we noticed something was not quite right. It appeared that this was a young gang club. The girls were the only ones dancing, while the guys were standing around looking very tough and mean. We began to feel very uncomfortable. Usually in a nasty club no one ever picks on the band, because the band is their entertainment for the evening. However, we were a very handsome band. The girls all wanted to be with us, which was not good because the rough looking guys hanging out here are giving us terrible looks and vibes. The guys were eyeing us as though they wanted to kill us. The girls in this club were extremely sexy and attractive. On our breaks, we were very scared to venture outside the club. I had met a girl who wanted to be with me very badly. I told her that the tension in this club is growing worst by the hour. I told her that I would meet her somewhere else if we made it out of this place alive. She told me where to meet her and the band prayed while we played.

After the last song of the evening, we waited a long time for the gang members to take off and exit the club. We were waiting for them to get tired of waiting for us, and we finally made it out. The bad guys ventured off, and I met this girl Julie and a few of her wonderful friends. I hung out with Julie for a couple of hours; she hooked me up with her male friend Ira who put me up in his house to sleep so that Julie and I could spend time with one another. Ira and Julie lived in Hewlett, Long Island. Hewlett is a prominently Orthodox Jewish community. Very wealthy! Since Julie could not date anyone that was not Jewish according to her parents, she and Ira gave me the name, Charlie Weinstein.

The next morning when Ira and I awoke, Ira’s mother had breakfast waiting for us. I arrived downstairs to the kitchen and I was introduced to Ira’s mother surprisingly as Charlie Weinstein. Ira’s mother was very sweet and wonderful, and she prepared us a great breakfast, scrambled eggs on a roll with cream cheese and lox. Boy was that delicious! After breakfast, Ira and I met with Julie and we went strolling around Long Island. Ira became a wonderful friend and he and I would become very close. Julie was very sexy and hot looking, but above all, she too was a very wonderful person. I was blessed to have met these two people. I was very different than the typical Italian boy from Bensonhurst. I fit in with the Jewish crowd perfectly. After the weekend gig, I would spend the next six months hanging out with Ira and Julie. I slept over Ira’s house almost every weekend I was free from the band performing. Ira’s family would eventually learn that I wasn’t Jewish, but they did not care. They loved me very much and treated me as a member of the family. Everyone in Hewlett loved me very much, but my own family treated me like shit. I could never understand that.

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Chapter 10 - Menora Temple

2006-04-26T21:47:00.000-04:00

Chapter 10 - Menora Temple

I am now a senior in High School, and I am excited that I have only one year left. I have been playing the guitar now for 2 years and I have progressed very well. I developed a great rhythm. I have also, along the way, began picking up some funky licks from watching other guitarists. I had an intensive learning process and my natural talent had shined through.

My brother is finally coming home from the Army. He is arriving by boat from Europe at the Brooklyn docks. We had a banner in front of our house that typically read: WELCOME HOME THOMAS. We had gone to the Brooklyn docks to pick him up, but there were so many servicemen that we could not pick him out or find him. My family and I returned home and waited for him to arrive on his own. I was sitting in front of my stoop hoping to get the first glance at him as he entered our block, and here he comes. He had turned the corner of 86th Street on to West 7th Street and I had seen a person dressed in uniform carrying a large duffel bag. I knew it was he. I ran to him with all my effort and speed, but to my surprise he said without excitement, “Hey Junior, How ya doing?” I expected him to drop his duffel bag and grab me to give me a big hug, but he did not. He just walked on toward our house. I knew then that he was not the same person. It shocked me and caught me off guard. He didn’t say much. As we arrived closer to our house, my sisters stormed out of the house screaming. They ran up to him, and started kissing and hugging him. I just stood there and watched in confusion and disappointment. They all walked him into the house and I went about my independent usual business as though nothing exciting had happened. Still in shock, I went to Joey’s house and his family asked if my brother had returned home, and I just replied calmly answered... yes, and there was no other talk about it and so I left it at that. After about an hour, I returned home to all of them at the dinner table having coffee and cake chattering. My brother brought home some gifts for everyone. First, he gave this gift to my mother. It was a German Coo-Coo Clock. I began to smile when I saw it, because it was cute, and I liked the little bird that came out of it. We all examined it carefully, and my mother excitedly
hung it up in the dining room. I watched as they spent about an hour opening gifts, but I did not receive any. I again left the house and went on about my business. No problem!

I again returned immediately to Joey’s house for a quick pick-me-up. Joey’s mother was very happy to see me again and made me some lunch. Joey’s sister Gracie is retarded, she is such a wonderful girl, and she loved me very much. We sat around the dinner table drinking coffee as I played around with Gracie. I made faces at her and she made them back. The biggest show on TV at this time was The Soupy Sales Show. Soupy Sales had a dog-called White Fang, and Gracie and I used to make faces at one another using the Soupy Sales/White Fang gimmick. Then Joey arrived home after spending some time with his girlfriend. Joey always had a girlfriend. He was almost never without a girlfriend. How could the girls refuse him? Despite that, Joey was having problems with his girlfriend. I believe she was putting strong demands on him about marriage, and things were beginning to get sour between them. I liked that, because I was afraid he would get too serious with a girl and spend less time playing music. I also wanted to develop a more personal musical relationship with Joey, and his spending so much time with his girlfriend made that difficult. If we were not rehearsing Joey would be with his girlfriend. I wanted so much to jam with him other than rehearsals. This would be more musically productive. Besides, there will be many girls to come if we just had time to practice with one another. However, things are playing out by it self. Joey‘s relationship with this girl is quickly falling apart. With that note, Joey and I started jamming together more often in his room. One day thereafter, Joey’s mother, and sister Gracie where inside the kitchen, and Gracie was playing her little radio that she always carried around the house. This new group, with all this hoopla comes on the radio, and Joey’s mother yelled out to us, “Jooooe...The Beatles are oooonnn.” Joey and I heard her and quickly listened to the sound. Then we went into the kitchen and sat at the kitchen table to listen more closely, and the song was great. It was called, “I Wanna Hold Your Hand”. The guitar style was great and very different. We were all immediately hooked on The Beatles. I could not wait to hear them again.

Meanwhile, Aldo was failing to get us any decent gigs. He had got us two gigs back to back playing for some Italian dances. Joey and I hated these Italian dances. The people were very un-hip, and they mostly didn’t speak English. I finally pressured Aldo. I told him that we would refuse to play any more of the dances where people do not speak English. After all, Joey and I were still in school, and I was getting ready to graduate. We felt that while we were still attending school, we really did not want to partake in any gigs that we did not enjoy. I told Aldo that he’d better get something decent happening soon or I will find an agent to book us instead.

This Beatle group thing is skyrocketing fast. They are playing their song every 20 minutes, and everyone is talking about them everywhere we go. Joey’s sister Gracie quickly bought
The Beatle album. Joey and I listened to it, and it was fucking great! We had never heard anything like it, and we started learning their songs immediately.

Aldo kept trying to find us a descent gig. Joey and I were quickly loosing faith in him. My family knew nothing about business. My father was a barber, and my mother was a seamstress. Joey’s family also knew nothing about business. Our families were all workers. However, Aldo’s family had a business and Aldo knew something about business. This is why Joey and I agreed to have Aldo the businessman of the band. Aldo contacted us and told us he got us a gig at the Menorah Temple in Boro Park, Brooklyn. Joey and I immediately thought, “We told Aldo no more Italian dances and what he does, he gets us Jewish dances.” We had no idea what this gig entailed. BoroPark Brooklyn is a Hassidic Jewish neighborhood. Joey and I were wondering when Aldo drove to the area, “What the neck kind of gig did he get us?” It turned out to be a very nice dance. Something different! The main group was Latin and we were the fill-in group when the Latin group was on their break. I had never seen so many well to do people in one place. Everyone was dressed beautifully. The women were gorgeous! The Latin band did their first set and they were fantastic. They were a big band,
Eddie Palmieri and Orchestra. They contained about 20 pieces with horns. The crowd was dancing with tremendous energy. After about an hour set, we got up on stage for our turn. We tried to maintain the energy even though we were only three-players, and the crowd loved us. The promoter of the dance thought we were perfect that he gave us the steady gig every week playing behind these famous Latin groups. We enjoyed working along side these Latin groups.

The next week we received our first billing in the newspaper and we were all very excited. It was a small billing, but hey, better than nothing. Joey mother cut out the ad of our billing, and Gracie was put it in her scrapbook. It was great! Then Aldo asked us to meet him down in the Village at his father’s store around 4:00pm. He wanted to take us clothes shopping. Joey and I hopped on the train, we got off at West 8th Street in the village, and we walked around a bit looking at the clothes at the massive amount of stores in the area. We arrived at Aldo’s father’s business, Jumbo Food Shop, and Aldo was working behind the counter preparing and serving people food. Aldo gave Joey and I some food to eat while he finished his chores. After about an hour, Aldo guided Joey and I to a warehouse where there were hundreds of theatrical clothing. Joey and I flipped out when we saw the clothes. We were like two kids in a candy store. Aldo began laughing at us. We then all began fooling around making up skits with the style of clothing we were trying on. They even had replicas of the jackets that The Beatles wore. I said fooling around, “Hey, we could make believe we are The Beatles, and get all the publicity. All we need is to buy those Beatle wigs” Aldo and Joey were laughing. Joey said, “Hey, that’s a good idea.” I said, “Yeah lets do a take off of them at the Menorah Temple this weekend, we’ll freak them out.” Aldo was for it. Everyone agreed and we bought a set of the jackets. We also bought some beautiful dark navy blue sparkle jackets that we all looked great in and that was going to be our new band image. The next day we went to Aldo’s house to take some pictures of us with the new navy blue sparkle jackets. We took the pictures, and developed them quickly, and they came out pretty good. We blew one of them up and made it our publicity photo. It appears that Aldo was worried that Joey and I were losing faith in him so he put his efforts into high gear. Aldo paid for the clothes, which he will eventually deduct from our pay.

The weekend arrived and we were about to play along side,
“Tito Puente and his Orchestra.” Very Exciting! We received a big billing in the newspaper, and again, Joey’s mother and sister cutout the billing and put it in Gracie’s scrapbook. We arrived at the Menorah Temple on Friday night and the place was packed with people. There were all kinds of limousines all around the Temple. We quickly brought in our instruments and Tito’s band was large, about 25 pieces. Tito’s band was already set-up, but there wasn’t a spot left to place our instruments. We needed to make room in the front of the stage so that the people will receive our Beatle act closely. This was the night that we were going to imitate The Beatles. We had practiced three of their songs. It would be a total surprise to everyone, and we would need space right in front of the stage. There were no members of Tito’s band available to talk with. So I went over to Tito Puente’s drums and moved them to the right so we could bring our instruments on the stage. Aldo quickly set up his drums, and Joey and I are setting up and placing our amps. Tito Puente himself comes running over to the stage and begins cursing at me for moving his equipment. I replied to him, “Who the fuck do you think you are? You’re not the only band playing tonight.” An argument began over territory. The Promoter came running over in between us and I told the Promoter that Tito was hogging the stage and we are performing here also. He wants us to move in the back and we need the front. The promoter liked us a lot and did not want to lose us because we were very neat looking clean guys, and we were also very good musicians. He also billed us in the newspaper as “The Van-dells Society Orchestra” because he wanted that clean look to capture the Society People, i.e. the rich Jews. The promoter and Tito went into a heated conference. When they returned, Tito said that after he breaks he would have his roadies move his instruments to the side of the stage so that we may perform up front, and we agreed.

Tito performed and tore the house down, as the expression is. He braked and we got up and started jamming out. The crowd went nuts, and they really loved us. Tito Puente came up to the side of the staged and he waved at me and gave me the OK sign. I personally don’t care who these stars are. I don’t take any shit from anybody.

We were supposed to only play a half hour set, but Tito asked us to play for 45 minutes. I think Tito really liked me/us. Then Tito played his second set and it was a monster. He took a 20-minute solo with musical horn arrangements slapping on every predetermined beat. People kept pilling in front of the stage to watch him closely. When his song and solo ended, the people responded with ovation. This was our perfect opportunity to do our Beatle spoof. The day before, Joey bought the Beatle wigs so that we could look authentic. We asked the promoter to introduce us as The Beatles. The promoter became shocked. He had no idea what we were doing. We got ready and the Promoter yelled out on the mike, “Now here tonight. Direct from England...Live here tonight.... The Beatles. We ran out into the crowd and we had or faces turned down and the people went nuts. We got up on the stage and Tito Puente even looked with surprise and confusion and we picked up our instruments and started playing,
“I Wanna Hold Your Hand. “ We sounded just liked them and we were imitating their actions to the tee. It took people about ten minutes for them to catch on, and then the crowd began laughing. Then once they knew that we were mimicking The Beatles the crowd went crazy. The Promoter could not believe it, but he loved every minute of it and we had the whole place in ore. We played the three songs of the Beatles and quickly exited the stage and the crowd gave us a standing ovation with yells, screams, and whistles. Then we went to the dressing room and took off the wigs, we were laughing, and the crowd was calling us back for more. Tito Puente gave a fantastic performance, but we then came back to top his previous solo performance. We got a greater reaction than he had. There was nothing he could do except come back with performing another great set, which he did! We were very unique that night, but Tito gave it his all and he went into one of his great long drum solos and the people went crazy all over again. The night ended and Tito personally came up to me and told me that he enjoyed playing with us very much and that we were able t0o be recieved by the crowd as much as he, and that pushed him harder and he wanted to personally thank me for this night. The Promoter also thanked us for putting on a fantastic performance and show. It was certainly a night to remember.

We continued to perform every week at the Menorah with all the great Latin groups. We made many friends with the Latin musicians and performers. The Promoter made a great deal of money, and the Menorah Temple dances stopped for about six weeks until someone else would come along and start it again. The success of the Menorah Temple triggered Latin nights all over the city. We were now known in the industry as the band that played and competed with all the great top Latin groups.

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Chapter 11 - Greenwich Village

2006-04-26T21:45:00.000-04:00

Chapter 11 - Greenwich Village

The Menorah Temple was our bands first great musical experience. It helped our band get tighter. Latin nights began popping-up all over town. We received many offers to play them and we did. I wanted to expand the band and add a sax. It would give us much more versatility. Aldo knew a sax player and invited him to play with us at another Latin dance at the Hollywood Terrace in Brooklyn. I told Aldo that we got to get the band out of Brooklyn and into Manhattan. That is where all the real action is. We tried this new sax player out and he played very well, but he was a fucking nut. He was an Italian geep who spoke little English and he wanted to be in control or be the star of the show. He was much older¦ somewhere around 29 years old. Although the band sounded somewhat better with a sax, this guy wasn´t the one we were looking for. It will have to wait for another time. I do not think that Aldo knows anyone who is not Italian. Meanwhile, I kept the pressure on Aldo to get us out of Brooklyn. Joey and I were growing tired of these Latin nights. It was the same shit over and over again. Sure we were playing with stars like Mongo Santamaria and Tito Puente, but we were always second billing. We needed to move on and make a better name for ourselves. We wanted to grow and expand and do gigs that were fresh and alive¦not boring. After all, people come to see the Latin groups not us. We need to break this rut! Therefore, the pressure is on Aldo again to get us out.

I planned out all the music for the group. I learned all the songs and rehearsed them with Joey first before Aldo came into the picture. I bought the records and sheet music and planned out the arrangements. It was a big job, but I enjoyed every minute of it. I knew every note and every drum beat before I entered rehearsal. I knew what was missing or needed in each instrument. My expertise was getting the band to develop a groove. I also knew how each instrument would be tuned for the best impact and sound. This was my job in the group, as well as keeping everyone in sprit and energy. This was my job. It was a tremendous responsibility and that is why I needed someone to handle the business. I could not do both. Therefore, it was my instruction that Aldo get us out of Brooklyn.

With continues pressure, Aldo got the band our first gig in Manhattan. He found a little bar on Wall Street that was willing to give us a try. Apparently, Aldo met many people while working in Manhattan at his father´s business. With my constant pressure, Aldo asked some of his acquaintances, and thus came up with this bar. We arrived in this little bar on downtown Broadway and we played about three sets. It was a dive. There were very few people inside. It seemed like a nice little place for the daytime crowd, but in the evening it was dead. We got off early about 11:30pm. I had known from asking around that the best club in Manhattan was Trude Heller´s in Greenwich Village. I took this early opportunity to convince Aldo and Joey that we go there to check-it-out. I wanted us all to see what was going on. Therefore, we decided to take a drive through the West Village streets to view some clubs. We entered Aldo´s vehicle and arrived at West 9th Street 6th Avenue. The first thing that caught our eye was this line of people on the steps leading into Trude Heller´s. We proceeded to find a parking spot in the area and as we got close to Trude´s place we could hear some music. We looked up at the neon sign, which was an outline of a woman´s face with the words, Trude Heller´s! Aldo is 19, I am 18, and Joey is 17. The drinking age is 18. We looked at the marquee in the front of the place and it had a picture of The Jimmy Castor Bunch. They were playing tonight. With excitement, I told Aldo and Joey, Let´s try to get in. The music sounded good, and I did not want to miss this. We arrived at the top of the eight step stairs, and we entered the twin glass doors. A distinguished looking Italian man dressed in a tuxedo waved us in to the bar area. He gave us the once over quickly, but he let us in without asking for I.D. I think he knew some of us were under age, but I think he also knew we were Italian and he let us slide. As we walked briefly to the packed bar area, I could not take my eyes off the band. I also could not believe the sound they had. The band was only three pieces, because Jimmy Caster played the saxophone, but they sounded very big. I was astonished by how big their sound was. I´m sure Aldo and Joey felt the same. Aldo, Joey, and I watched intensively. We watch Jimmy´s performance and we were very impressed. His professionalism, his bands sound and the way they went through the songs. The songs were one after the other almost without stopping. Real smooth transitions! We were pressured by the bartenders to order a drink immediately, and so we did.

It was a small club with a very big sound. The bar area was small and located directly to the left as you walked in the front door. It had a glass divider that separated the bar from the small main room. The divider was made of dark glass so that you could not actually see the band if you did not sit in the main room. It was sort of a punishment for drinking at the bar. In the main room, directly in front of this dark glass divider, were these 25-inch round tables with booth type seating facing the stage. Beyond that group of tables is a tiny isle that one would walk to the seating area or the bathrooms which was directly to the left. In front of this little isle were these tiny 15-inch round tables with a little candlelight in the center. They seated as many as four people each. In the center of the main room is a small dance floor, but enough to crowd about 60 people if it had to, and mostly it had to, because the place was packed. To the right of the dance floor and situated in the corner against the wall was another group of larger tables facing the performance stage. The stage was about 15 inches off the ground covered with a thick red carpet. The stage is about six -feet long and four-feet wide. Very small! There was a small platform located to the left of the stage above the tables against the wall. The platform was about is an 8-inchs wide. Up on the platform were attractive and sexy female dancers with mini skirts. Sometimes they had male counterparts. The dancers were called, The Trude Heller Dancers, appropriately. The place was jumping!!!

We watched Jimmy Castor for about 40 minutes and another band immediately came on stage. The music is continues. Jimmy band was finishing his last song of the set, the other band came up and plugged in and caught the same groove. The Jimmy Castor Bunch was good, but they weren´t great. As my ears adjusted to the room and sound, somewhere around a half hour, I noticed that they were a little weak at times. If they had an organ, they would have sounded much fuller. I of course was being very critical. Creative people react that way when they see other people´s art. Constructive criticism! It is a normal reaction if you want to learn and understand art. Jimmy Caster put on a great show and his professionalism really impressed Joey Aldo, and me.

I was listening to Jimmy´s rap and the words he was saying in signing off the set and introducing the next band. There were two sets of drums on the stage. The tall black guitarist plugged in. Jimmy was still talking as the next band was grooving. While this was going on, two horn players, a sax and trumpet walked up on to the stage, and as soon as Jimmy walked off the stage, the other band kicked in immediately into a new song, but they had horns. I could not believe my ears. I have never in my life heard a sound like this. The horns in this six-piece band had brought the club to a new height and a new direction. The club seemed to lift off the ground. Everyone everywhere in the club was moving their body. I could not see straight. I was so high from the music and drink that my adrenalin began flowing at an uncontrollable rate. I could not see straight. Then when you thought you couldn´t get any higher, this 6 foot 3 inch, 260 pound black man came walking on to the stage and started singing with this incredibly powerful voice and the whole club went into oblivion. Non-Stop, song into song, the band was incredible! The guitarist was playing chord structures that I have never heard or ever seen before, but all the musicians were great. The drummer also impressed me because he was hitting the snare drum and the bass drum so hard that the groove just jumped out at you. After about six songs, the band finally introduced itself. They are Benny Gordon and the Soul Brothers. Aldo wanted to leave because he had his father´s car and he had to be at work with his father in the morning. On our way out, we thanked the Italian looking man in the tuxedo, he smiled back, and as we entered the street, no one said a word to each other as we walked to the car.

Once we were in the car riding home I had spoke the first words, That was the most incredible experience of my life. Aldo and Joey at the same time, and with a low voice said, Wow! We were tired.... Or were we drunk¦Or we were high from the music or exhausted? Aldo and Joey couldn´t believe the experience. We were all quietly thinking to ourselves. This experience would change my life forever. I went into that club as one person and exited another, and I was sure that Aldo and Joey felt the same way. Now I had to restructure. Joey said, How do we sound like that? The next day, I was still thinking how we could sound like that, and this is what I thought:

First, they had a bass player, and we had no bass. There is no bottom to our group.
Second, we were mostly playing top forty songs and show tunes and the Trude Heller groups were totally R&B. The R&B radio stations were separate from mainstream.
Third, they had horns.
Forth, they did dance steps while they played to enhance their appearance and the music.
Fifth, the club itself had a tight solid sound.

The next night we again played the Wall Street bar and it gave us the opportunity to reflect on last night. I basically said that we needed a bass player. It really made the difference. Aldo agreed. I could see Joey thinking, and that is what I wanted. I planted the seed in Joey´s head and I was hoping it would bloom. We again finished around 11:30pm, and I told Aldo and Joey that we should walk around the Village and see what else was going on at some of the other clubs. Aldo and Joey quickly agreed.

This time we drove the car through the narrow streets of the Village, and as we were coming down West 4th Street, we noticed a club called, The Cinderella Club. I said that looks interesting and Aldo began to park. We went into the Cinderella Club, and it was a really dark and funky. We had the obvious look of a band, because we were dressed up in black suits with skinny ties. The owner came strolling over, and he said, Are you guys a band? I said yes. We are playing a few blocks away at this little bar; I then immediately said, Why don´t you hire us. The owner quickly said OK. I said, Let me get my drummer to speak with you, and I introduced Aldo to him. While Aldo was talking to the owner, I went to Joey and told him that the owner might hire us. Joey became very excited. The band on the stage was not too good, but they had a bass player and he played a Fender Bass just like the two bass players at Trude Heller´s. We could feel the bottom. Aldo finished the deal, and he told us that we were playing the gig full time Tuesday through Saturday starting next month. We flipped out! Aldo is becoming a good businessman, that is, he´s good at negotiating the money. We then entered Aldo´s car and drove home. On the way home, Joey decided to stop playing the guitar and learn to play the bass instead. Aldo and I became exceedingly happy. Joey said he was going to ask his parents for a loan, and buy a new Fender bass with a Fender bass amp. We had three-weeks to prepare for the Cinderella Club. Most of all, we were indeed playing in The Village. It wasn´t the happening part of the Village, but the happening part is just four blocks away. Better yet, no more Brooklyn!

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Chapter 12 - My Brother's Stores

2006-04-26T21:43:00.000-04:00

Chapter 12 - My Brother´s Stores

My brother, after arriving home from the Army, was rarely around. He immediately received a job at Peerless Camera Store, in Manhattan. It was the largest camera store in the New York area. I went to visit him a couple of times to have lunch. We hardly ever saw each other, because he was hanging out with his girlfriend in Long Island. They were getting married. I thought that I was going to be with my brother all the time, but instead I hardly ever seen him. It was if he never arrived home from the Army. His new attitude was an indication of the way things were going to go. It was a shock and disappointment for me. Things are happening so fast for him, that I´m trying to block out the sudden effect it´s having on me.

Two months after he´s home, his wedding begins. It was a surprise wedding. He married so quickly; it was difficult to adjust to my brother not being around anymore. My brother and his new wife went to Florida for their honeymoon.

I was getting ready to graduate High School and my family began pressuring me to get a job. I told them that I had a job working with the band five nights a week at the Cinderella Club starting next month. They didn´t like it. My mother wanted me to get a job in a bank. That is what her best friend across the street, Zitsy Rose´s son did. My mother´s pressure was so great that when I graduated, I went to apply at a bank in Manhattan. I did not feel comfortable when I went for the interview, and therefore, they did not hire me. My mother and sisters were very forceful. I told them that banking is not for me, and they started knocking the music again. I tried to explain that music came very natural to me, and that I was very good at it. I even grabbed my guitar to play some songs for them, but they refused to listen. They would only made sly remarks and laugh at my playing.

About a month after my brother´s honeymoon, he received an offer to manage some camera stores that were located in various areas in the subway system in Manhattan. He was doing well, and my mother was telling him that she was worried about this music thing with me. My brother told my mother to tell me that I should consider working for him. My mother then pressured me to work for my brother. I wanted a car very badly, because Joey had bought this 1959 Pontiac Bonneville Convertible and it was very beautiful. I wanted so much, a car for myself. My sister Marie is a sweetheart, and the best person in the family. She had a good job on Wall Street and made me an offer. She told me that if I would go to work for my brother that she would co-sign a loan for me to get a new car. It was an offer I could not refuse, and besides, I could still do my music. If I do not like the job I will open at the Cinderella club in three-weeks and thus I could pay for the car.

I went to my brother´s main camera store located in the 50th Street subway at, Rockefeller Plaza. It was a little one-man store. My brother introduced me to the manager, and I began working, which required doing many errands. My brother told me that he would soon give me a store to run for myself. I was excited about that, but let´s see where this takes me. My first few weeks were good. I was hustling through the massive crowd going from store to store picking up supplies and relieving people. I was actually having a good time. It was interesting traveling through the subway system. I was learning all the hidden passageways, and all the shortcuts. Occasionally, my brother would take me around, and introduced me to many people. My mother and sister were very happy that I liked the job. I was also doing the band gig at the Cinderella Club, five nights a week. I was making good money between the both jobs. I told my sister that I wanted a car and I asked her to follow through with her promise. She gladly agreed.

I had been looking for the car I wanted, and it was definitely, a
1963 Chevy Impala Convertible. They were just beautiful. I went to the showroom and talked to the sales man. I picked out a Canary Yellow Impala with black leather interior. It came with all the options at a hefty price tag of $3,000.00. The payments would come to about $265.00 a month. My sister co-signed, and the contract for the car was completed. They had to special order the car, and it would take about two weeks to arrive. I was flabbergasted. I was the happiest person in the world, and my first car would be a beauty. Joey the bass player freaked out, and we would soon be both cruising around in competing cars. Aldo became very surprised, and slightly jealous. I had also learned that my brother Tom, behind my back, tried to convince my sister Marie not to co-sign the loan.

Two weeks later, the car arrived. I walked to the showroom to pick-up the car alone. As soon as I seen the canary-yellow 1963 Chevy Impala convertible with black interior, I fell in love. It was so beautiful. I put the top down and rode to everyone´s house to show it off. Then I went to my neighborhood church to have a priest bless it. Everyone had his or her cars blessed in our Italian neighborhood. I thanked my sister Marie with much love.

The band was also doing very well at the Cinderella Club five nights a week. Joey had learned to play the bass and he bought a new Fender bass and amp. Our band will improve immensely with a bass. I was now learning R&B tunes to teach to the band, and I now had a new approach in creating a new sound. I first had Aldo tune the bass drum to a low A, D, or E note depending upon the sound of the room. I would ask just the two of them to play. With only the bass and drums playing I should feel the bottom pouncing on my heart. Then we would tune-up together. When I´m doing this I´m very serious. When I´m on stage, I am also very serious. I only can smile when everything is working together in rhythm. I hear every note all the time. I know when something is out of place. With Aldo, I hear if his snare or bass drum is not loud enough or punchy, and if he´s not staying ahead of us. I apply the same to Joey´s bass. However, I had to learn the bass parts for Joey, because he is lazy. It doesn´t matter. I have to learn the songs anyway. I would learn the bass part then teach it to him.

When I´m on stage I keep them all on their toes. If someone slacks a bit they get my body language. If they don´t react quickly enough, then they will here from me verbally. I might say things like, Pick-it-up, pick-it-up, or, I can´t here you, I can´t here you. I developed dance steps watching other groups on stage and the band and I rehearsed them over and over. Basically, we all know and except each other for what we are capable, and we are good friends. Everyone would follow me. I called the songs. I counted them off and choose the tempo. I tell the band when and where to cut the songs by using my guitar neck. Everyone has to keep an eye on my neck. My guitar neck is my baton. I held the ending crescendos as long as I felt, and I did most of the announcing. Everyone followed me. When we learned a song I made sure that it was note for note with the record. This is because every single record has its own groove. There are maybe similarities with other records, but each record was already proven by being a hit, so why change it. Some bands develop a different style to present the song, but most of the time their style or arrangement isn´t as good as the original. The way it works is this: Once you play the song exactly as it is for two weeks straight, it either stays the same, or changes itself to a similar groove that the band develops itself. If it stays the same, then the groove is happening. However, if the groove changes, then that change must be better than the original or I will return it back to its original groove. That´s the way I do it, and that´s the way it works. More importantly, everyone in the band agrees with my ability to accomplish all this. Thus, The Van-Dells are now becoming more competitive. God gave me this talent so it comes natural to me. I felt compelled to do this as if I had knew it all along.

It was tough, but I am working two jobs. My brother noticed that my band was progressing, and he decided to offer me a manager position with my own store. I believed he was trying to get me as involved as possible so that I could eventually stray away from my band and the music business altogether. He gave me a store to manage in the subway of the East 42nd Street station, otherwise known as Grand Central Station. It was located in a deep passageway underground. This store was a very small, hole-in-the-ground type of store. This was not the kind of a store that my perception wanted to manage. I agreed to take it, because I really didn´t want to say no to my brother. I wanted to stay loyal to him, but the store became very boring, very fast. It is only 10 feet long by 5 feet wide. What kind of photography store is this? It was more like a big box. It only was a drop off point for developing and printing film. This sucks! It is even difficult for me to go to the bathroom, because no one would come by to relieve me. I had to close the store and lock it up in order to use the bathroom. I always listened to the radio intensely everyday. There was nothing else I could actually do. It was a meningless position

I had the radio on one day, and I heard that The Beatles were about to arrive in New York. The airport was packed with thousands of screaming girls. The Beatles arrived at Kennedy Airport and there was uttered chaos. I would remember this day for the rest of my life. The Beatle mania thing was happening all over the country and the world. The Beatles were staying at The Plaza Hotel on 57th Street and 5th Avenue. The store was very slow and the radio DJ was transmitting directly from the Plaza Hotel live. The Beatles were traveling in a motorcade of black limousines from the airport to the hotel. The excitement was building on the radio. I wanted so much to be there for their arrival. It wasn´t very far from my store. I began to think¦I could jump on the train, go one stop, and I would be there. The only way that I could be there was to close the store. Should I close the store and go? If I did, I knew my brother would flip-out if he found out. The radio is talking about all the people that were gathering at the Plaza Hotel waiting for the Beatles to arrive. I then said fuck it! I love music, and this is a one-time-event to see. This would be my opportunity to see The Beatles in person. Therefore, I purposly closed the store.

I quickly hopped on the express train one stop to 57th Street, and I arrived at the Plaza Hotel. There were massive people waiting for the Beatles. I pushed my self through the front of the crowd, and patiently waited. About a half hour later, the limousines pulled up, and the crowd went crazy. Paul McCartney got out of the limo and waved, and I was right there, just across the street. Then I saw the other Beatles exit the limos and they also wave to the crowd. What an experience! I then decided to quickly return to the store. I was away from the store for about two-hours, but as I returned it appeared that no one had noticed. Great! I reopened the store, put on the radio, and continued to listen to the excitement.

The next day, my brother had learned probably from the ajoining neighbors who had businesses nearby that I had closed the store for a few hours. He became extremely mad. He asked me why I left the store, and I told him the truth. I went to see The Beatles arrival at the Plaza Hotel. He was not thrilled, but he said nothing.

The next week, he transferred me to another store on the opposite side of town, 42nd Street and 8th Avenue. Unlike the other store, this store was extremely busy. My brother asked me to take the money at the end of the day and drop it in the same chute where the customers would drop their film to be developed overnight. He said that he would retrieve it in the morning before I arrived to work. Everything was going very smooth for about three weeks. The band was forming large crowds at the Cinderella Club, I had a new car and I was making good money. My bother paid me two hundred dollars a week off the books and I was making three hundred and fifty dollars with the band. Together I was pulling in $550.00 a week. Not bad for a 19 year old kid.

Then one afternoon my brother asked me, Where is the money you were supposed to drop in the chute last night when you closed the store? I replied that I dropped the money in the chute as usual. He said that the money was not there in morning. I told him that I put it in the chute as usual. He said well maybe you forgot to put it in the chute. I got pissed off and replied, What the fuck do you want me to say Tommy? I put the money in the chute. My brother said that the money wasn´t there. I again replied that I put where it was supposed to go¦I don´t know what happened if it´s not there. What I did not know, was that my brother called our mother, and told her that I stole the money from the store. He went on to tell her that I probably stole it because I needed to pay for my car payment. My sister Marie conveyed it to me about two weeks later.

My mother never said a word about it to me. I then purposely spoke to her, and I told her that I know that my brother told you that I stole some money, but I didn´t. I went on to tell her that I wouldn´t steal from anyone. It is not in my nature. I added that I believed that my brother stole it, and he tried to blame it on me. In fact, I am sure of it. I don´t need to steal money. I make more money with the band than I could ever make with the store. My mother confronted me about stealing the money as if she refused to believe me. That caused me to explode at her for believing only in my brother. I became very frustrated and annoyed that my own mother would not believe me. I told my mother to tell my brother that I quit! I told my mother that I didn´t need the fucking job.... I will make it with the band. From now on, I´m going to work with the band and concentrate on the music.

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Chapter 13 - The Cinderella Club and Trude Heller's and the day America died

2006-04-26T21:41:00.000-04:00

Chapter 13 - The Cinderella Club and Trude Heller's and the day America died.

The Cinderella Club is great and we are finally playing in the Village. The owner loved us and after the first week, he wanted us to be the main band at the Cinderella Club. The club had two bands on Friday and Saturday night, but we were the only band during the week. The club was slow and there were not many people strolling through the area. Joey practiced a great deal on the bass, but it wasn´t until our second week, live at the club, that he really got the feel of it. That was all right, because we started on a Tuesday when only a few people showed up. On the weekend everybody was drunk and didn´t care about anything. However, after about four weeks we were packing in a large crowd, but the crowd sucked. It was mostly a laid-back atmosphere type club. Know one dressed-up to come to this club. Our band had to dress down to eventually fit in because normally we always dress well. This is because The Cinderella Club is located on West 4th Street and not on West 8th Street where everything is really happening. West 8th Street is the main drag. That is where we wanted to eventually be.

For now we needed to use The Cinderella Club to try to create the sound for Trude´s. We were just a three-piece group, but we all sang and that alone that made us sound very big. Now that Joey´s playing the bass we needed to work on our vocal harmonies with Joey´s bass in hand. Then we needed to work on better songs and since I´m working for my brother in the day it will take a while for us to accomplish this. We have time and we are all making good money. Most of all we´re having fun.

Since we were now just a few blocks away from Trude Heller´s, Aldo, Joey, and I walked over to West 8th Street on our break to see what was happening. We strolled down McDougal Street toward West 8th Street, and when we arrived to Eighth Street, we saw this massive beautiful crowd standing outside this club called, The Eighth Wonder. We could not get too close to the club because there are just too many people standing in front of the place. Therefore, we walked over to West 9th Street to take a look at Trude´s club, whom ever she is! Believe it or not, the club was not too crowded. It seems the Eighth Wonder club is stealing the show tonight. We walked back up West 8th and there were other clubs. Some located in basements and others one flight up from the street level, but they were all not really happening. Then we proceeded back to the Cinderella and passed the crowd hanging around The Eight Wonder. I told the guys that next week we have to go into The Eighth Wonder to check-it-out. They all agreed.

The next week on Tuesday, which was our night off, we arrived at The Eighth Wonder to check-it-out. We walked in and the bar was located immediately on the left. A man came to us and asked if we wanted a table. We accepted. He walked us to a table and we were seated. Apparently there is a cover charge of five dollars per person to sit at a table. There were only about ten people in the club. The band was good. It was only a four-piece group and they had a very nice sound. The band was called, Joey Greco and the Firelites. We called the manager of the club, the same man who seated us, and began talking to him. I told him that we were a band that was now playing at The Cinderella Club on West 4th Street, and that we wanted to play at this club. The manager smiled and introduced himself as Joel Heller. I said, Holy shit, are you related to Trude Heller Joel laughed at my innocence. He said, Yes, that is my mother. I enthusiastically told him that we wanted desperately to play at his mother´s club. Joel went on to say that the only way an unknown band could play at his mother´s club was to make a mark in his club first. He also said that his mother was very strict about bands. Hearing this, I then asked for an audition. He replied, OK. Come do a couple of sets next Tuesday night. It is the slowest night of the week. Come audition around 9:00pm and if you are good we will talk. Great! I replied. We shook his hand to thank him. He told us that we didn´t have to pay the cover charge. We continued to watch the other band to learn some pointers and then we left. Wow, I said, What a nice guy he is. I told Aldo and Joey that if we get into this club we would only be one step from a dream come true. Joey and Aldo both agreed.

The next Tuesday, we showed up at The Eighth Wonder and set-up our instruments. We played our first set and then we broke and turn the stage over to Joey Greco´s group. I told Aldo to go speak to Joel and ask him if he likes us. I told Aldo that this is where we need your business sense. Go secure a gig here. Aldo sat at the rear bar with Joel Heller for a talk. Aldo returned to give us the good news. Apparently, Joel liked us so much that he booked us to play along side of Joey Greco´s band indefinitely. Joey and I were lost for words. Not bad for a three-piece group! We were now one step closer to playing the main Trude Heller´s club. As it would turn out, it would be a giant step.

We had to finish our week with the Cinderella Club. We told the owner that we were leaving, and the owner looked very sad. He asked why, and we told him that we were going to start at The Eighth Wonder next week. The owner was so very wonderful to us, but he understood and wished us well. Now we have another full time gig, Tuesday through Saturday at the Eighth Wonder. I told Aldo that we should now think about expanding the band. We all agreed, and decided to look for a sax player.

We started our gig at the Eighth Wonder and everything went fine. Everyone liked us and we were beginning to become very comfortable. Joey Greco and his band are real helpful to us. They made us feel very comfortable. However, we were anxious to meet Trude Heller herself. In talking with Joey Greco´s band, we were confronted with a few disturbing answers to some of our questions. First we learned that Joey Greco´s band was working at The Eighth Wonder over a year. They were called to fill-in at Trude Heller´s six times in the past year, and each time they were returned back to The Eighth Wonder the next day. They never had the opportunity to play there more than one night. Second, that Trude Heller is gay and she is very mean and strict with bands. If the band did not lower down their sound when she told them to, she would fire them on the spot, and were told to pack their gear and get out. This was while the whole club is jammed packed with people. Wow! To make things worst, we learned that she rarely ever comes to visit this club The Eighth Wonder. It was a club to keep her son Joel out of her hair and keep him busy. Thus it seemed to be pretty depressing news if you ask me. We had hoped that somehow she would get wind of us, but I also must say that Joel Heller is a very nice guy and enjoyable to work for.

Joey Greco´s band was indeed correct! We have been playing at the Eighth Wonder now for over a month, and we had never seen or heard anything about his mother Trude Heller. However, we are meeting and playing with many beautiful girls. The club hired these cute little female dancers named,
The Salisbury Twins. The girls looked identical. The twins thought that Joey and I were twins. In fact, most of the girls we were meeting at the club had been mixing us up. A girl that Joey knew would come up to me thinking I was Joey, and a girl I knew would come to Joey thinking he was I. I do not know why, I don´t think that Joey and I look alike at all, but apparently the girl´s seem to think so. When we would correct this mix-up, the girls would say to us, Oh, Well you must be brothers. We would tell the girls that we weren´t brothers, but they would never believe us. It was such a confusing issue, that Joey and I decided to tell them that we were indeed brothers. Everyone believed us and therefore the confusing issue was resolved. The Salisbury Twins thought we were twins and of course we told them that we were. This made it easy for Joey and me to date them. We needed to change our names because Joey and I were fooling around so much that we thought it would be good to develop a stage name. Therefore, I changed my name to Chuck Harris, and Joey changed his to Joey Martino.

It was easy for Joey and me to fool around with the Salisbury twins. We looked like double twins when we were all together. The Salisbury twins were very young in their brains, maybe about 13 years old, but they were very sexy and hot. The twins had the day off on Tuesday night so they decided to be with us at the club. I had my car parked in front of the club so that Joey and I and the twins could hangout in it during our break. That night we were all in my car. I am sitting in the front seat with one of the twins and Joey was in the back with the other. The twins a spray can from their purse. They then began spraying this white foam type junk throughout the interior of the car. I began yelling at them to stop, but they continued spraying it all over Joey and me, and everywhere throughout the car. It looked like shaving cream. The twins were uncontrollable. I quickly grabbed the spray can from them and I began spraying the white foam on the twin´s faces. The twins began yelling and screaming as Joey and I were laughing. Suddenly, a man came up to the car and knocked on the window. I looked, and he presented a gold police badge at me. I lowered the window to learn that they are two undercover police detectives. They asked us all to exit the car. I was pissed! This is Tuesday night and there is hardly anyone walking on the streets, and these two dicks come out of nowhere and spoil our fun with the girls. They asked me for my license and registration. I asked them, What´s up, were not bothering any one. They did not like that, so they asked to see everyone´s ID. The twin´s shuffled around through their purse, which was all covered with the white foam, and handed the police their ID´s. Meanwhile, Joey is only 17 years old. I was hoping that the detectives would not notice our band photo on the clubs window. One must be 18 to perform in a club, and have in possession a cabaret license. Joey told the detective that he did not have his ID. I tried to steer the cops thought a pattern away from the club window, and then they asked us what we were doing here. While we were explaining that we were just having a little fun, the other detective looked at the marquee and noticed we were the band. After learning that Joey was underage, the cop called Joel Heller out front and told him about Joey. That triggered a set of problems for Joel, but after a long discussion they agreed to let Joey play at the club as long as he did not drink. The cops then walked on their way. Mutherfuckering cops. That is what they were. Give them a badge and they will play God. Joel used excellent diplomatic tack to get us out of that unexpected situation. Joel then told us all to get inside, and as we apologized to him. Joel told us not to worry. Joel loved us, because he finally had two excellent bands playing in his club. He definitely did not want to loose that. Joel has a warm heart.

The next Tuesday night was very special evening. Guess who showed up at the club? Trude Heller herself! She came in on this quiet night and sat in the back where it was dark. She watched our performance carefully and left just before we were preparing to break. We were very happy with that, because now she knows who we are. Joel didn´t mention anything so I guess she came to see the new boys on the block. Great news! Now at least we know that she knows who we are. Everyone in our band was ecstatic.

Meanwhile, The Beatles music is changing the world. Music had never been the same since they came about. There are many England rock bands that are being exposed, and trying to follow The Beatles footsteps. These new bands are very good. They call it the English Invasion. However, Rhythm and Blues is also gaining momentum. It is a wonderful time to be alive and enjoy music. You could see the attitudes changing throughout the country. More and more clubs are starting to form, and people are starting to get out more to enjoy themselves in the clubs and the girls are very easy to be with. It seems that everyone has their guard down feeling very good and comfortable about their lives, but something is about to drastically happen that would destroy it all and change the world and America forever.

My life is very good now. I´m very happy. I love the positive progression of the band and the way life is moving with it. I'm also making some good money too so things are moving very well. If I could just move and get away from this negativity toward music and my being in this business from members of my family at just my home, things will be about perfect. So the next thing to do is that I need to concentrate on moving out of my house.

I was at home learning some new songs when I heard that President Kennedy was shot and killed. I could not believe my ears. I continued to learn songs as though nothing had happened. I unconsciously developed a mental block toward it. The music scene, my life is so wonderful and happening that I did not want any thing to disturb it. Nothing was on my mind on November 22, 1963, but the excitement of waiting to get back up to the stage and play.

Still not grasping the ramifications of this day or hour, I jumped in my convertible and turned left on Avenue V to West 6th Street. I made a right and proceeded up West 6th Street, then another right on to Avenue W, and a quick right on 86th Street. When I got to Barney´s candy store, I made a left and traveled around the streets curving around the Marlboro projects, which shortly becomes Avenue Z. When I hit the light at Stillwell Avenue nd Avenue Z, I make a quick left and right on to Bay 50th Street, which leads me onto the Belt Parkway entrance on te other side of Cropsey Avenue. Once on the Belt Parkway, the ride takes me past the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, which is the largest span bridge in the world. The bridge connects Brooklyn to Staten Island. I pass under it and the view is just beautiful. As I pass the Bayridge area of Brooklyn.... O´shit! ...A fucking cop....he´s sitting along the side of the road on the grass.... Here he comes.... His lights are on.... I get a fucking ticket. 62 in a 50! They see new cars and they love to nail you. I am off again; let me read this ticket...$20.00. Fuck¦Thank God I am making good money. Another three points! Now I´ll have nine points altogether. If I get another speeding ticket I´ll loose my license.

I am now heading on the Brooklyn Queens Expressway that elevates above 3rd Avenue. It is a long straight stretch, which eventually curves to the left and trestles high over Redhook, Brooklyn. There is nothing on the radio except information about the President Kennedy killing. Then after about 1000 yards, the BQE trestles down again and I now have a choice.... Go straight to enter the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, which exits into the lower Wall Street area of Manhattan. It is a $1.00 toll. Or bear right on the continuation of the BQE. I always go that way. Fuck the toll. I continue on the BQE as it now descends below street level until we hit Park Slope. Then the BQE glides along the coast of Park Slope with a magnificent view of the East River and lower Manhattan. As we pass under the Brooklyn Bridge, we take the next exit, which is the entrance ramp on to the Brooklyn Bridge. Once on the bridge we pass over the East River, which separates Brooklyn from Manhattan. As I come off the Brooklyn Bridge, I enter Chambers Street, and after three blocks west, I make a right on Church Street. I head north on Church Street, which connects directly to 6th Avenue, also known as Avenue of the Americas. I travel north on Sixth Avenue. I then pass Soho, which is a short term for South of Houston Street, then I cross Houston Street and pass Noho, and then into the West Village. I drive to West 8th Street make a right and there is the Eighth Wonder. I have to get a shirt. I left my house too fast. I must look good tonight.

This Kennedy killing is now becoming very serious. I am just starting to feel the effect it is having on me. Joey and Aldo arrived at the club in a state of ultimate confusion as well. There are no patrons inside the Eight Wonder. Everyone is in a continuous state of shock. We performed. But Joel let us go home early. The club was empty and no one ever arrived.

The next day, I spent the entire day with my father watching the TV and following the events of the killing of our president. It was horrifying. I can remember that day with vivid detail. I was walking up the steps in my house, which leads to the bedrooms.

Halfway up the stairs, I heard that they were transferring Oswald. I hesitated, thinking of turning around to go back down the stairs to watch this part on the TV. I turned around to look at my father watching the TV and as I was walking down the steps, I heard a shot. I saw my father´s body jump in shock. I paused for a few seconds and my mind was in wonderland. Then I ran down the stairs to look at the TV again. My father and I were devastated. I will never forget that jump my father did when the gunshot sounded, but most importantly the facial reaction he had. It was as if his world had ended. For the next two weeks, every one in the world would be in morning. A depressing state for the world.

It was the day America died ...forever!

Nothing is or will ever be the same again! My music career just went down the drain. This country called America that I grew up and lived out in thus far is now has been officially designated as ENDED!. I will never know or see that country I knew and loved again. Things will move along very slowly, but within a few years, nothing I lived through or experienced will ever exist again, because something inside of me (my sense) is telling me that this ia a takeover. This event is bigger than anyone can even imagine, except for myself.

OK now, I must try to go on with my life. What else can I do? The band is happening, and I was enjoying the way my life is progressing up until now. It seems that every year there is another improving progression in my life. I feel that life itself was improving and people were becoming more loving to one another and happier. The only thing on my mind right now should be progressing more effectively with the band, and improving my guitar playing. I must think positive and stand above it all. That is all that matters right now. However, this killing of our president is fucking everything up including my thought process, and I'm also aware that in reality now, everything I said is actually going to regress.

A few weeks later, I was sitting in front of my house relaxing and strumming on my guitar. Suddenly, a very strange thing happened. I became inspired by Jose Feliciano record, "Light My Fire". I had learned how to play that song, and I was fooling around on my guitar picking with my fingers thinking of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. Sometimes, when I was with a girl in my car, we would go park in the parking area located near the Verrazano Bridge. The girl and I would make out in the car or we would exit the car and walk around under the lights of the bridge. It is a very beautiful sight and very romantic. Anyway, I was thinking of this and a song and melody just shot into my head from out of nowhere. In just five minutes, the song was completed, as if someone just transferred the lyrics and chords right into my head. It was the first song I had ever written. To my surprise, I could not believe that I wrote it. I was always wondering how to write songs, but this way was ridicule´s. Anyway, I played the song for Joey the bass player and he loved it. Thus, my first written song was, "The Verrazano Bridge".

That evening, when I arrived at the Eighth Wonder, I decided I was going to hang out at Trude Heller´s club when I was on my breaks to observe. I did this for two weeks and everyone who works there now knows me. I have been watching everything that goes on in the club. I definitely know what Trude Heller looks like now, and I have been watching her actions. She is tough all right and a good business person! She sits in the corner table near the back by the bar. I watched her one night get up, and walk silently down the little isle between the tables and looks at the band as she holds her ear lobe. That is her key for the band to lower down. She then would walk back to her table and sit down again. I've been watching the movement in the club and everyone s actions and I'm picking it all up and learning it. If a band did not respond to her silent hand requests, she would fire them immediately on the spot. In the middle of the evening, with the place packed, the band would have to pack up and leave swiftly. Then she would call up the next band and tell them to play a double set while she summoned a replacement band from The Eighth Wonder. The band at the Eighth Wonder whom she chose would have to take their guitars without the cases, walk around the corner, enter Trude Heller´s, and proceed in the kitchen to wait to be called to perform, which was usually after the next song after they arrived. Now after playing a set at Trude Heller´s, the replacement band would then go back around the corner to The Eighth Wonder and play another set. The band would have to do this, play contiuously all night without a break untill 4am in the morning. Joey Greco had explained it all to me at one time before. It seems that is the only way a band is going to play a night at Trude Heller´s unless you are a well-known accepted group.

Sure enough, the following week, she fired a band, but instead of calling us, she called Joey Greco´s band as the replacement. We were very disappointed of course, but we were patiently hanging in there. Meanwhile, Aldo found a sax player named Ritchie whom he met somewhere in New Jersey. Ritchie came to the Eighth Wonder for an afternoon rehearsal. We asked Joel Heller if he would tell the janitor to let us in for practice. He agreed and Joel also showed us how to turn on the lights and PA system. Joel instructed the janitor to let us in the club for rehearsal. Ritchie the sax was fucking great! He also was a wonderful young guy and he had a great voice. He loved to sing background. He knew music and music theory like the back of his hand. I could tell him to play a part a certain way, and he would do it instantaneously without a problem. As a bonus, he also played the flute very well. He was a long standing musician in demand. He was a free-lance musician and making a good living. We asked him if he wanted to join our group and he quickly replied yes without any hesitation. Wow! We now have a wonderful new addition to the band, a sax, flute, and a forth voice.

That night at the Eighth Wonder our first set with Ritchie on the sax, flute and voice blew everyone away, including Joel Heller. Joey Greco´s band felt very helpless. We were below them in standing and experience ever since we arrived in this club, but tonight we jumped way ahead of them all in one moment. In the following two days getting tighter and tighter the band was smoking. Our vocal harmonies had become much richer and full with a forth voice. With another lead instrument and lead singer, not to mention the flute, we expanded our repertoire. We were now concentrating on learning and playing more R&B tunes. We had quickly expanded our horizons. What a difference the right person makes. The right type of musician added.

It did not take long for Trude Heller to hear about our new sound, and doing something that she is never known to do, she quickly and secretly arrives at The Eighth Wonder to hear our new expanded band, and she made herself very noticeable to us. She even asked Joel to invite us to her table for an introduction. We all went to her table and shook hands with her, but that was all, because her vibes felt very distant. However, things are looking great! She complimented us on our new sound and we just smiled. We were still waiting for that big break, even though we somehow knew now it was eventually coming, and we were very excited about it. The point now is when and where she will call for us.

The next evening, Trude had secretly returned to the Eighth Wonder once again. I noticed her sitting in the back end of the Eighth Wonder in a darkly lit corner table. However, I also noticed, as I was playing that Trude had some personal company with her. I was straining my eyes to distinguish who was sitting with her. It looks like Xavier Cugat and some young blond female. I whispered to the guys on stage that Xavier Cugat was sitting with Trude at the back table. When our band finished our set we were quickly escorted by her son Joel to Trude´s table. We were introduced to Xavier Cugat and this young foxy Spanish girl named Charo. We all could not take our eyes off of her. Her big breasts were popping out of her dress. Then Trude told us that Charo is an up-and-coming-singer. Trude asked us if we would like to back Charo in performing some songs here at The Eighth Wonder. We all quickly agreed. We didn´t want to refuse any requests by Trude. The only problem was that Charo spoke no English and she was new to America. We had then set-up rehearsal schedules. I told Trude that I would be happy to pick Charo up at her apartment on East 34th Street and drop her off there after rehearsals. Everyone agreed. I wanted to get into Charo´s pants so badly. She had a most beautiful little tightly shaped body. Although Charo didn´t speak any English, I was going to try and put the make on her. The next week as scheduled, I arrived at Xavier Cugat´s apartment waiting for Charo to enter my Chevy impala convertible. I had the top down to create a special mood. I bopped the horn, and shortly thereafter she arrived and sat in my Chevy. She looked fucking hot! Here I was¦driving downtown toward the West Village with this beautiful Spanish blond in my car. I tried to communicate with her, but it was extremely difficult. She was so actively alive and fresh with enthusiasm, and she was extremely friendly and happy. I wondered, as well as the band members, how she became the girlfriend of Xavier Cugat. I guess in a way it is simple¦Hey girl; I´ll make you a star routine.

Charo and I arrived at the Eighth Wonder and the band had been waiting for us. We had a most difficult time trying to find a song that we could do with her. She then took out her classical nylon string guitar and sang us a song in Spanish that she had already knew. We tried to develop an arrangement to her song, but it was not in tune to our style of music. We had eventually developed some sort of guideline, but time had passed very quickly so we had to continue our rehearsal with her the next day. I had to return her home. Charo and I entered my convertible and I took a long route back to her apartment. I wanted to make it with her badly!

The next day, I again picked Charo her up at her apartment. This time I decided to show her a little of the city during our trip downtown. We drove around through the Wall Street area. Charo was digging it with much excitement. We tried communicating with one another, but again it was almost impossible. I knew that if I would pick her up and drop her off everyday that I eventually would get much closer to her, and she to me. Oh, would I love to do her.

After about a week of escorting Charo to rehearsals, we were going to perform our first engagement together on Saturday night. Xavier Cugat and Trude Heller attended, and both were anxiously observing. As Charo sang, she would often turn to me and smile. She and I had now developed a nice friendship even though there was a language barrior. Xavier, watching closely, quickly noticed the little bond that we had both developed. He showed some jealously as he watched his little sweetheart perform. The next day, Charo and Xavier were gone. We never ever heard anything from them again. Trude also had never made a mention about they´re whereabouts or they´re future intentions. I expected Xavier to sweep Charo away from our band. We were all about the same age as her, and our band was very handsome. As far as the band was concerned, Charo actually did not fit in our style of music. With the language barrior it was more of an aggravation than anything else. The lack of communication and the undeveloped musical ability of Charo was more of a hindrance to us. We were actually glad that she was gone. However, she was one of the most beautiful and friendly young woman that we had ever seen, and what an incredible body she has!

Meanwhile, I am digging this new girl Barbara who has been hanging out at the Eighth Wonder every weekend with her girlfriends. These girls came from and live in New Jersey. Barbara has got a cute little body and some nice tits. She not great looking but I think she likes me too. It is something I need to investigate further.

Our band´s sound is progressing better and better. A month and a half had gone by very quickly and after Charo, we didn't see her much. We were thinking that her interest in us was only for Charo and not for her big club. We were feeling a little disappointed. We thought that something would have happened by now. In the meantime, our contiuing great improvement is deteriorating Joey Greco´s band very rapidly. It´s not that Joey Greco´s band sounds any different. It´s just that we sound ten times better. It is beginning to become an embarrassment for Joey, and as such, we are feeling kinda sad that we are doing this to his band because he such a wonderful inspirational guy and a wonderful guitarist.

One night, while we were performing on stage, I saw Joel Heller suddenly pick-up the telephone. He doesn't answer the phone unless mother is calling. While he was on the telephone, he was continuously looking at us and smiling. I knew that something was up. I turned to Joey and told him that I think that something is brewing. Joey asked What? I told him to look at Joel. I then turned to Aldo and said, This could be the shot that we have been waiting for, as I nodded to Aldo to look at Joel Heller talking on the phone. We just knew that the next time Trude requested a band that it would be us, but the phone had never rang up until now. No doubt about it! Joel then hung-up the telephone and gave us the cut sign by sliding his hand across his neck. In sign language, I asked Joel, You want us to cut? Joel then put out his arm and pointed to Trude Heller´s. Oh man, we went crazy! We got so excited. We quickly ended the song in extreme happiness, grabbed our instruments, and before we went out the door, we each slapped Joel´s hand with a high-five. Joel told us with a big smile on his face, Well, this is the moment you guys have been waiting for, knock´em dead! It seems that a top band showed up at Trude Heller´s incomplete, and she got pissed and told them to pack up and leave. She called us in to take their place. The big break! We are now about to play a performance of a lifetime.

Trude Heller´s is known as the biggest and most exciting happening club in America. Hollywood stars and the jet setter´s frequented her club daily. All the big names in the business, as well as, the most important and influential people attended her club. It was the place to be. However, just because a band is filling in from The Eighth Wonder doesn´t mean that the band would play there again, or full-time. Almost every band from The Eighth Wonder who had to fill-in at Trude´s had returned to The Eighth Wonder the following day. However, this is our chance to get down and boogie and show her what we got and what we can do. It was the moment we have been waiting for it is a Friday night. The biggest night of the week! We grabbed our instruments and ran around the block to Trude´s club.

As we exited the club, West 8th Street was jammed with people, and as we were running through the crowds, with our instruments in hand, everyone stared at us and thought that we were nuts. Imagine walking along on a busy street in Manhattan and seeing a band all dressed in blue sparkle jackets running with guitars and a sax pass you. What would you think? It was weird.

We entered the club and all the workers were waiting for us to arrive. We noticed the great pleasing expression on Trude´s face that we made it to the club very quickly, and wasted no time. We were shocked to see that there was no band playing. We got up on the stage plugged in while everyone in the audience was quietly waiting and watching, and we quickly began to play. Everyone at first just stared at us for a moment until they started to feel the groove. As soon as they felt the strong groove we were laying down, everyone began to move. Once they started to move they began to smile, and then the place was began jumping. As we got to the third song instantaneously, (Instantaneously means, As soon as the song ended, one had to quickly start the next song so that the momentum was never lost, and Trude loved this.) We were prepared for this moment, the club was jumping and Trude began to smile openly. I could see that she was very impressed at our attitudes and quickness. Then in the middle of our fourth song, she did her famous, to the ear lobe, lowering-down-act. However, we were all prepared for this and she didn't know that we knew. She got up from her table walked silently down the narrow isle and put her hand to her ear lobe as if she was going to train us to follow her comands. We had practiced to instantaneously lower down on command at The Eighth Wonder many times to get an instant simultanious lower down. Before she could take her hand away from her ear we freaked her out by instantly lowering the sound a few notches. We can see the happiness in her expression as she walked back to her table. It was as if we were playing there for years. After we finished our set we quickly headed back to The Eighth Wonder to do another forty-minute set then it was back to Trude´s to perform a forty-minute set again. We did this going back and forth thing for the remainder of the evening. It was extremely tiring! As soon as we finished our last set at Trude´s, Trude requested to talk with Aldo in her private office. A good sign! Aldo was in her office for about a half-hour so we all thought that this was a positive reaction and something good could come of it! We were all hoping! Aldo finally exited her office and said, "Well boys, as of the following Monday, we are now playing full-time at Trude Heller´s!" Bam!!!! We are in!!!! Not only are we playing at Trude Heller´s, but she wants us to be the main house band. We get one week off every month, and we all would be earning $500.00 cash a week each. That is $1,500 a month each! It is our dream coming true. Tomorrow night at The Eighth Wonder our band will have a great going away celebration with Joel Heller and Joey Greco.

The next day, I told my family the good news, but they were not impressed in the least. My sister Jeannette again reiterated that if I continue doing music I would regret it in my older life. My mother kept asking me to get a real job and specifically stressed that I should have remained working for my brother. A slight argument erupted as I tried to defend myself in the mist all this negative energy. All I know is that I must get away from this house. The TV was on at my house and the news was very disturbing. It seems that our new President Johnson is escalating the war in Vietnam. Since the past and current new musical revolution had made the country happier and more outgoing, no one wants this war.
Anti-war demonstrations are beginning to pop-up all over the place. Everyone is now talking against his bad actions, and this Vietnam War. I´m sure that if enough people stand against this thing, and it looks as thought this is happening, the War will dissipate or or I hope it will.

That evening, we all celebrated our last night at the Eighth Wonder. Trude gave us Sunday evening off so that we could start at her club on Monday. Joel Heller surprisingly bought us a cake and he gave our band free drinks on the house. Joey Greco´s band was very happy for us. They were actually glad that we were leaving, because then they would have their number-one position back at the Eighth Wonder again. So, everyone was happy! We all had a wonderful time that evening. I grabbed the girl Barbara and gave her a big kiss, and I asked her to come to Trude´s to hangout and see me. Barbara pleasantly agreed!

We opened at Trude´s on Monday night. We needed a professional photo of our group for the Marquee located out front just as the other bands had. I had noticed that the name Bruno of Hollywood was on all the professional photos of bands. Therefore, I suggested to Aldo that we do the same. Aldo would set it up!

We were now extremely better than The Jimmy Castor Bunch; in fact, no band could come hear to us except for Benny Gordon & the Soul Brothers. They were playing elsewhere and occasionally they would be available for Trude Heller´s. Benny Gordon´s band was originally a church group. They knew how to get down and swing and they had two horns. They enjoyed performing in church vesus a club. When they were not playing at Trude´s, they mostly performed at black clubs. They were the only band we knew that could out-perform and out-groove us on stage. The Van-Dells had made the transition. When we obtained Ritchie the sax, we began focusing on performing more R&B tunes recorded by Wilson Picket, Sam & Dave, Otis Redding, and Booker T & the MG´s. So now that we´re playing full time at Trude´s, we must concentrate on adding a trumpet. I believed that if we added a trumpet, then no one would be able to touch us. It would be the next step in competing with Benny Gordon´s band when they would arrive.

Trude occasionally had independant guest vocalist that came on the stage to perform a couple of songs. One of these singers was Monte Rock the III. Monte Rock is a gay, rich, former hairdresser turned artist/vocalist. I liked Monte. He was very mysterious unique character. He would get his only fame ten years later when he received a part in a movie as the DJ in, Saturday Night Fever. Anyway, Monte Rock and I became pretty good friends.

The next and immediate step was to take professional pictures to place on the Trude Heller marquee in front of the club. Aldo had set-up a session with the best theatrical photographer in the business, Bruno of Hollywood. They have taken photos of all the well known stars. I wanted to look my best for the shoot so I asked Monte Rock the III, who was also, and originally, a hairdresser, if he would style my hair for the shoot. Monte said yes and he invited me to his apartment and proceeded to restyle my hair. I had no idea what he was going to do with my hair. I just had to trust his theatrical sense. I wanted something unique. When he finished it, I looked in the mirror and got pissed off and shocked at what I had saw. He had cut it way too short. I didn't say anything to him. I smiled and just thanked him, but I was extremely disappointed. I really didn't need him to get a short haircut like that. I just could have went to a regular barber for a look like that. I had no other alternative now, but to make it grow back again and continue with the new photos looking like this. Anyway, we arrived at the studios of Bruno of Hollywood and the photographic session went well. It was very expensive, but we are playing the big time now so we had to do it. The following week, the new photos were obtained, and our new look was born, but I hated my short hair style in the photos.

A few weeks later, Benny Gordon arrived to perform at Trude Heller´s to knockout The Van-Dells, the new R & B white kids on the block. Benny and his band played the first set and they tore the house down. Our band was no match for Benny´s group, but we did stand head to head with them. When we played, we were a great contrast for the crowd. After a few nights of playing together, Benny and his band developed a great respect for us, because he could not knock us out. They out grooved us and created a storm, but when we played, we had the crowd almost equally pleased. When Benny finished his two-week span, it was an unforgetable experience to remember for us because we stood along side the best R & B band in the city.

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Chapter 14 - The Four Tops

2006-04-26T21:36:00.000-04:00

Chapter 14 - The Four Tops

The Guitar player in Benny´s group was Sammy Gordon. He was not related to Benny, they just shared the same last name. Sammy and I had become good friends. I wanted very badly to learn some of his great guitar licks. He had a strange way of playing guitar. When I asked him what chord he was playing, he didn´t know. We both had no formal lessons. We both learned by ear except I knew the chords I was playing and he did not. I often tried to examine Sammy´s style of playing. I would try to pick out some of his lines. Now that we are the main band at Trude´s, I am becoming close to him. We were able to work together and build a competing friendship. Sammy also wanted to learn some of my licks. It wanted us to get together to exchange chords and licks, but it was difficult because when I wasn´t on stage he was. I'm going to have to find a solutuion. I want to learn some of his riffs.

Meanwhile, I have, since The Eighth Wonder, been seeing Barbara often. On the weekends after the gig, I drove Barbara home to Jersey City, New Jersey. Once there I would park my car under this desolate overpass that has barely any street lights, and Barbara and I would make-out for hours. We would make-out until the sun came out. We practically did that almost every weekend, Friday and Saturday nights. Barbara had a great little body, and she liked me very much. When we finally were promoted to Trude Heller´s, Barbara and her friends could very rarely come to see us, because it was too packed and a lot more expensive. So I used to tell Barbara to meet me at the neighborhood bar just up the block from Trude´s on West 9th Street. This is where the band and I hung out on our breaks. Every weekend up until 3:00am in the morning, Barbara would be waiting for me. However, A new female was about to enter the picture.

Trude hired a new female dancer. Her name was Yvonne. She was from France and a ballet dancer with the Jodfrey Ballet in New York. Yvonne had an apartment in the West Village at 7th Avenue and Perry Street. She was a tall slim blonde-haired girl with a most incredible body and looks. She had a beautiful petite mouth with a great smile. She was very difficult to get to know, but she soon became attracted to me. One night, Yvonne invited me to her apartment after work for a drink. I accepted of course, and after talking with her for a while, she asked me to sleep over. We eventually entered her bed, but honestly, I had never had sex with a girl before. I did not know exactly what to do? She started to massage my penis and I started to message her vagina. I was feeling for the opening to where I was supposed to put it. I felt something, she was very tight, and I did not know if that was exactly the spot. She positioned her self in a way to guide me. I was afraid of making a stupid mistake. I just let her be the director. I finally got it in, and boy, it felt fantastic. She started moaning and moaning and I eventually came inside her. It was a wonderful first sexual feeling. Yvonne is a very hot and beautiful looking girl.

The next day, Yvonne made me breakfast and treated me like a king. She had a wonderful little two-room apartment that was very quiet situated on the top floor of this four-story brownstone. The next night at work, I told Yvonne that I felt very comfortable at her apartment. She smiled, and asked me to come home with her again.

The only problem I had was trying to get a parking space for my car in her neighborhood. My large Impala convertible had problems fitting anywhere. I would have to drive around and around until I found a place to park. Manhattan is very difficult if you own a car, but that is not going to stop me being with this French beauty.

We had sex again, and the following morning Yvonne requested that I move in with her. She handed me a key to the apartment in the evening when we returned to Trude´s to work. What a score, I am now finally out of my house in Brooklyn. Thank God I won´t have to drive back and forth everyday and thank God I can get away from the negativity. I am very happy and proud to have such a wonderful beautiful girlfriend.

One of the first things I did, now that I was living with Yvonne, was to invite Sammy Gordon over after work to jam and exchange licks. Sammy agreed and taught me the black R&B way to play chords and I taught him leads. Sammy was not very good at lead guitar, and he had much difficulty playing the licks I showed him. He was more of a rhythm king. We would jam together for hours. After awhile, I was progressing better than Sammy was. I was enthusiastic about learning and I was normally very talented in anything I did.

Yvonne was slim, which I liked in a girl, and she was beautiful. She would occasionally teach me ballet steps. She had a gay Filipino male friend and fellow ballet dancer named Amadeo. He also began working at Trude Heller´s. Amadeo´s father was in the hierarchy of government in the Philippines. Amadeo was a wonderful person who would stretch his heart to anyone. Yvonne and I were the talk of the town, and everyone told us that we are the perfect match. We were both very happy and very much in love.

One morning, I went to my car and it had a big deep slash on the side of it. From what I can tell, I had parked the car on the end of the corner, and a truck was turning, and the turn was not wide enough to clear me. Truckers seem not to give a shit about cars. I was devastated that I had this gash on my driver´s side. Not worth declaring with the insurance company having a $500.00 deductible.

I couldn´t believe how wonderful it is to live in Manhattan, especially the West Village. It is so quiet and pretty on Perry Street. It is so wonderful to be there right in the middle of everything. You just walk out of your apartment and there it is. Yvonne´s rent payment was $99.00 a month. It appears that the apartment was under rent control and she received the lease from a friend. The apartment was quaint. As you walked in, on the right it had a bar type counter with stools and behind that, a tiny kitchen with mini stove/oven and sink. To the left was a short hallway, about four feet that led to the small bedroom. The hallway area held the bathroom, which had a tub. Past the bar type kitchen area is a small spacious living room that faced the street. The two windows facing the street in the living room had a fire escape in which you could sit out on. I am lucky to be living at 79 Perry Street with such a beautiful sexy French girl. The only problem is my car and where to put it everyday.

Meanwhile, at Trude Hellers, a journalist came to me and wanted to interview me for the New York Daily News about the upcoming raise in the drinking age from the now 18 years old to 21 years old. I said, "Sure!" The next day my picture was in the newspaper. Barbara is still coming to watch us perform, and she wants to be with me very badly. I liked Barbara a great deal, but I wasn´t going to risk my beautiful French dancer especially since I´m living with her in the city. Barbara had no idea I was living with Yvonne. I needed to keep it that way, because I liked Barbara also. Therefore, I needed to make-up excuses to keep our relationship alive.

Yvonne and I are living together quite happily, and the band received our one week break from Trude Heller´s.

We now have a new booking agent; the world famous, William Morris Agency, and they took charge of booking us into another venue during our Trude Heller break. They booked us at the famous Metropole Cafe in Times Square, 49th Street and Broadway. This gig has a bazaar set-up. The bands perform high above the bar. The Metropole was loaded with beautiful Go-Go girls. It was made famous eventually from the movie The Odd Couple. In a scene in the movie you can see a good friend of ours who we were about to meet, Johnny Serrano...The Johnny Serrano band. We went over great at the Metropole and blew the other bands away. The Go-Go girls were fantastic and Joey fell in love with one of them. Her name is Evie. She was a beautiful Filipino. Apparently, Evie was almost divorced, and her ex-husband came to Evie´s apartment while Joey was there and began a confrontation with Evie. Joey stepped-in and settled it once and for all. No one should ever mess around with Joey. Evie also had a little girl named Nancy. Anyway they soon feel in love, and her ex-husband never bothered her again.

The Metropole had a stage about three feet above the bar, and the stage was about four feet wide. Actually it wasn´t a stage but a platform that extended from one end of the bar to the next. It had the longest bar in New York, 250 feet long, and they had continues music from 11am to 4 in the morning. It was located in upper Times Square just off 49th Street and Broadway. They had 2 bands in the morning, 2 bands in the afternoon, and 2 bands in the evening. People came in and out all day long to line up at the bar and listen to the music while watching the Go-Go girls. They employed more Go-Go girls than any other club in New York.

We played at the Metropole for one week and Trude Heller became very jealous and demanded we return back. When we returned back to Trude's she offered us more money, but she told us that anytime The William Morris agency had a special assignment for us that she will give us the time off to perform it. Trude herself had become our best friend, and we all loved her very much for what she gave us from the very beginning. She always treated us with a heavy hand, and in another way like gold. Trude had the best club in town, and nobody ever came close. It is the place to be if you can afford it. The drinks were 4 bucks apiece and if you wanted to sit at a table it was 4 dollars per person per set not including drinks. That means if you are a party of four and you each have a drink and listen to the band for one set, (which was 40 minutes) your bill would be $32.00.00 per person. We returned to Trude´s gladly for another month.

Our agent at the William Morris Agency got us this next gig to back-up the Isley Brothers in concert in New Jersey.
Cousin Brucie, the famous pop radio DJ at WABC in New York, was hosting the show. We arrived at the out door stadium and met with the Isley Brothers who saw that we were white. We assured them that we could play funky black music with the best of them. The band learned their songs before hand, and when we performed, we kicked ass. The Isley Brothers loved us and said to us that it was their best performance. During the middle of our performance, it started to rain very hard. The rain was collapsing the tarp covering the stage. Therefore, the promoter had to stop the show. Cousin Brucie decided to transfer the remainder of the show on a TV music program that was going on live. So we packed up our gear and went to the television studio to complete the performance. We performed one of The Isley Bros. greatest songs, Shout, on Cousin Brucie´s TV show from Philadelphia. We performed so great with The Isley Bros. that everyone was talking about our band. The agent then booked us to back-up The Four Tops, at the New Jersey State Fair.

The day of the performance, Joey and I hopped in his Bonneville convertible and headed out to Trenton, NJ where we would meet Aldo the drummer and Ritchie the sax player. Joey and I arrived at the Trenton State Fair and learned that we were going to perform directly on an auto racetrack. So, we headed to the track entrance area where a race was still in progress. We could hear the racecars whizzing by and Joey and I looked at each other and said, Oh shit, those cars are moving very fast. We could not see anything, because we were directly behind a huge fence, but every time the cars went by, we felt the rumble. We waited, and Ritchie and Aldo drove up directly behind us. We all got in a circle together around our cars and were talking about how bazaar it was to be performing at a raceway. Shortly thereafter, we heard a great roar of people as the sound of the cars reduced. We knew then that the race was ending. As we were waiting patiently, we notice a line of limousines forming behind us. We knew who the limos were. Then the fence opened-up and we were of to the stage. The stage is positioned right off the racetrack, but before we parked our car, Joey wanted to try out the racetrack with his Bonneville. There we were progressing speed as we headed around the racetrack. The corners curved upward as an embankment. We were now doing 110mph and I was scared shit. Joey loves it. The workers who watched us shoot by were laughing, but the officials began ordering us to stop. They were waving the checkered flag like crazy. Joey and I were laughing, but Aldo the drummer got pissed off. We slowed down and parked the car. As we exited the car, Aldo gave us a story. We entered the back stage and into the dressing room of The Four Tops. We introduced ourselves and shook hands. We all began talking with one another. The Four Tops were a great bunch of guys. They then introduced us to their guitarist and musical director. The director looking at us (white boys) said, "Did you guys ever play R&B before? Joey and I looked at Aldo and Ritchie and I replied, No, but we already know the Tops songs. Of course, we were only kidding, but their arranger and The Four Tops did not know that, and we could see their sudden worries on their faces. Ask me a stupid question and I´ll give you a stupid answer. I told the Four Tops, Don´t worry! Just tell us which and when and everything will be all right. They all laughed except their arranger/guitarist who then asked me to take out my guitar so that he can go over everything with me, and I proceeded. The musical director then started strumming the Tops songs and he was terrible, and not even funky. I watched him make a fool out of himself to the members of our band and I agreed with everything even though we were not going to do a thing he said. The Van-Dells was so good and prepared with great enthusiasm that we were unstoppable. The guitarist/musical director said and done his piece with high ego, authority, and we proceeded to our dressing rooms to get dressed. While we were dressing Len Barry arrived and knocked on our door and quickly said, You guys know my song? We replied, No problem! Len then replied, Great I will see you guy´s later on stage.

The sky was darkening and the people were coming into the grandstand that is located about 200 feet in front of the stage with the racetrack in-between. We had heard that it was sold-out at 5000 people. I looked at the marquee, and again no credit was due us. Frustrating! Things were getting pumped-up and the energy was starting to build. Actually, all the performers are wondering what this band of white boys is going to sound like. We did not know but all the stars were extremely concerned. They went to the director of the show and asked him to make us open the show with a song so they could know what was going to go down tonight. The director of the show came to our dressing room and said you guy´s mind opening the show with a number? We said sure. Fine!

S H O W T I M E!

It was really dark out in the audience as we approached center stage. Then, as we walked out on the stage, we saw nothing but hundreds of flash bulbs going off. The sides of the stage were packed with the artists waiting to here what we sounded like. We plugged-in our instruments and proceeded to tune up quietly. Everyone became quiet, but the energy is high, and everyone is anxiously waiting. We looked out to the audience, but we could only see as far as 100 feet from the stage which was lighted by the refection of the stage lights. Then, I approached the mike, said hello to the audience, and introduced us. Then, knowing that everyone was anticipating, I called out to the band the first song, which was, Shotgun, by Jr. Walker and the All-stars. Any R&B band knows that this is the hottest funky song at the time. It opens with only the bass and vocals. I counted it out, Joey began to play, and I followed singing. Everyone listening was in total shock, and after the opening verse, Aldo joined us into the cut. We entered the sax solo with a funky groove and Ritchie began blowing his sax. With the four of us now in full motion, I glanced at the artists standing at the sides of the stage and all I could see was smiling happy faces throwing big thumbs-up signs. We ended the song with a great crescendo. Everyone was so amazed that they all yelled out to us to do another song. I quickly called out, Land of a thousand Dances, by Wilson Picket. As we started to sing we could hear the whole audience joining in while the flashbulbs were continually flashing. The stage was moving up and down with the rhythm. It was certainly a feeling we could never forget and a moment to always remember. When we finished the song, the director came out and yelled on the mike, How about this great funky band, The Van-Dells? The crowd responded amazingly loud. Then quickly he introduced Len Barry who had the hit song, One, Two, Three, which we were prepared for. Len came out on the stage and our band made him shine. Len only did one song and prepared the crowd for The Four Tops coming next performance.

As the director was presenting this long introduction, the guitarist/arranger for The Four Tops, walked on stage with an ego/authority and plugged in to his little amp. The Four Tops came out and the crowd went wild.

What nobody knew was that we had special arrangements that would make our four-piece band sound just like The Four Tops records. We also knew that we were about to blow this guitarist right off the stage. The guitarist called out, Reach Out and proceeded to count out the song. As we began playing the intro, the guitarist started to fumble. The intro of the song has no guitar chords, but instead a melody and bass. I was able to pick-out in a chord structure the records intro melody. The arranger/guitarist did not know what to play. He was in shock, because we had all the music covered. The Four Tops themselves could not believe what they were hearing, because we were playing the intro so funky and precise that The Tops turned around and told us to keep on repeating the intro. The Four Tops watched us and we were smiling. Their guitarist got so frustrated and lost that he just walked off the stage in disgust. We were repeating the intro to build a momentum. Then the Tops told us to kick-into the song. Aldo played this hard snare pick-up and The Four Tops then turned to the audience and started singing. We sounded so great! The music...The vocals....The dance steps of The Four Tops.... The energy.... The lights...The yelling and screaming of the crowd. It was totally incredible. The awe of it all! Then we got to the first hook and the Tops began singing the title.... REACH OUT.... And all chaos broke loose. The audience crowd began rushing the stage. We could only see about a hundred feet in front of us, and suddenly, we saw this massive rush of hundreds of people charging the stage. We had only about 30 seconds to react. We quickly unplugged the guitars and began running of the stage, but the Four Tops were not as fortunate. They were caught by surprise. All the loving fans clobbered them as I took a last look before I went backstage. I could see all these people jumping on top of The Four Tops. The show was immediately cancelled. All we were thinking about was hiding for cover and protecting our instruments.

The Four Tops did not get hurt. They were able to withdraw before the great majority of the fans caught them. They were very lucky, and we were very lucky. I guess this might be the beginning of Stage Security. Our band is very frustrated, because everything was working just right. We had prepared for this moment for a long time. We weren´t able to finish one verse with the Four Tops. The Four Tops and our band were so great together, that the intensive energy ignited the crowd. The people in the grandstand completely became overwhelmed. Thus, they went crazy and rushed the stage. What a performance!

Again, I cannot believe how fantastic the band and my musical career are progressing. I have the most wanted band in New York. We have the best booking agency, William Morris, and we are backing-up the greatest stars in concert, and at the same time, playing in the hottest night club in the country, Trude Heller´s. I have a gorgeous French ballet dancer as my girlfriend and a ravishing apartment in the West Village. I have a beautiful new Chevy Impala convertible, and I am making over $600.00 a week. The only thing that could be added to this is a recording contract.

However, there is an extremely dark cloud hanging over the entire country waiting to strike and destroy everything and take all this great fortune away from us. The Vietnam War! I am very scared and frightened. I am also pissed-off and mad at it all. I am crying out, OH GOD, HOW CAN THEY DO THIS TO ME. MY LIFE IS SO BEAUTIFUL. PLEASE, STOP THIS WAR!

Yes, the war in Vietnam was increasing now that President Kennedy was killed. Linden Johnson was sworn-in as our new president. Everyone is in a state of confusion. The entire country is in protest, and yet the war is still continuing to escalate. Our government is beginning to institute the draft. There are also many strange things happening within our government. The day after Kennedy was killed; someone took the pure silver out of our coins. Why? What is going on? This Oswald assassination sounds very phony to me. I do not like this entire picture!

With these fears in our minds, Joey and I suddenly received a letter from the draft board to report for a physical examination next month to be classified. We became very scared. Our band is happening almost to the peak of where we want it, and now they want us to stop it all to go fight a war. I told the band members that I was not going to kill anyone, and that I was willing to run away to hide in Canada if necessary. Joey told me that he was not sure what he would do, but that he would not run. Everything is beginning to crumble under our feet!

When I arrived home after the Four Tops gig I learned that Yvonne was commissioned to perform with the Jodfrey Ballet in Montreal, Canada for four weeks. The band was enjoying another week off. During the week, Yvonne´s friend Amadeo called me to say hello, and he asked me how I was doing without Yvonne at home. I told him that I missed her very much, but it was a time of relaxing. Amadeo said that he had the coming weekend off and he made a suggestion, Let´s go to Montreal to see Yvonne. I replied, What are you crazy? He then asked, Have you ever been to Montreal? I replied, No, I have not. Amadeo continued, You have a car. Let´s take a ride to Montreal. It would be fun. We could surprise her. I started to laugh, but after a few thoughts, I realized that is was not such a bad idea after all. I always wanted to see Canada, especially since I may have to run to it to avoid the draft, and it would be wonderful to be with Yvonne. I never saw her perform ballet. I told him, OK. I am up for it. Let´s do it! We left early Saturday afternoon. We were enjoying the scenic ride through upstate until about two hours before the Canadian border when a New York State trooper pulled me over for speeding on the baron highway. We had to wake up the judge at his house to pay the fine. Now I stand to loose my license. This ticket gives me 12 points and four speeding tickets. Fuck! Amadeo told me not to make it spoil our trip. He was correct, and I took it out of my mind for the moment.

We finally arrived in beautiful Montreal Canada around nine o´clock at night. We proceeded directly to the Performing Arts Center where she was performing. We bought two tickets to the ballet, and watched her performance. It was very beautiful and wonderful. I had never seen her perform a ballet. She was doing a duet ballet with this black male dancer. I was very surprised to see a black male ballet dancer as her dancing partner. Black males are rare in ballet. I suddenly felt a little jealous, because they both were performing as though they were in love. However, that is the way ballet is. I quickly tried to overcome my jealousy, and enjoy the performance. I asked Amadeo if he new if her partner was gay. Amadeo replied, Yes, I know him. I quickly felt a sigh of relief. Yvonne still doesn't know we are ther watching. However, she will be very surprised, shocked, and happy to see us.

After the performance, Amadeo, who is a ballet dancer himself, proceeded to find a way backstage to the dressing room to make contact with Yvonne. I waited outside by the stage entrance door. He returned with her and she quickly ran over to give me a hug. As I was holding her with joy, I felt that her hugging me was a little strange. It somehow felt very distant. I said to her as I was holding her, You looked very beautiful and I wanted so much to watch your performance. She then gave me a small kiss. Hmmm, that was not her style, but I quickly realized that she had just finished her performance and that maybe she was high from all the attention. After all, I should know. I am a performer also. I know what it is like. She told Amadeo and I that she had not expected us to attend the performance, and that she had planned an after performance get-together with some important people from the show. She continued to say that she had to get to sleep early for a photography session in the morning, but that she would get together with us tomorrow for lunch. I went into shock listening to all of this and surprised at the manner of her communication. It was as if she was purposly brushing us off. I am confused and lost for words. I looked at Amadeo and he looked at me. Amadeo was confused also. He continued to talk with her as I listened quietly to her replies. She is not making any sense at all. My perception was that there was no way she would be with me/us tonight. Her response made me feel very helpless. I suddenly thought to myself, Wait a minute. I´m a man. I´m not going to make a woman´s bullshit turn me into butter. Irritated, I immediately interrupted the conversation and said, Hey, we just drove all the way from New York City. You are telling your loving boyfriend and your best friend here that you are too busy to involve us in your engagement? She quickly responded, You should have called to tell me you were coming! Then, just as she finished the word, coming, she added, I got to go, and she quickly took off and disappeared back into the stage entrance.

Amadeo became very helpless. After all, it was his suggestion that we are here. I said to Amadeo that something is not right here. Amadeo went into defense, No, she is just overwhelmed from the performance¦ Do not worry, nothing is wrong. I was trying to regain my thoughts and I reiterated to Amadeo that something is not right here. I was thinking out loud to Amadeo, This is the woman I live with. This is my girlfriend. This is the woman I love. I am the man she loves. We just drove eight hours to talk with her in person for five minutes? Do you really think that something is not wrong? Amadeo did not know what to say. I began to become uncontrollable. I said to Amadeo, Look, if you and my girlfriend drove a long distance to see me, and I was going out after the performance with people, I would invite you to come along. My girlfriend is the same as if she was my wife. My best friend is the same as my brother. Who´s going to object? It doesn´t make any sense. I´m not going to put-up with this bullshit. I asked Amadeo to go back inside, and find out what it is that is causing this. I told him, talk to her and find out. Amadeo understood and proceeded inside again to talk with her. He returned again and said listen, I talked with her and nothing is wrong, she told me to tell you that she was sorry, but she is busy with all the people. She received many flowers from people that she has to thank, and everyone in the company is going out together, political stuff. She said that if we would have called, then she could have communicated all this to us, and we would not have had to make a wasted trip. I told Amadeo that it is understandable to a degree, but I still cannot buy it! She is redirecting the blame on to us, and making it appear as though it was our mistake. I told Amadeo that I needed to walk around the block alone to think, and that I will meet with him in 15 minutes. Amadeo said, OK.

I proceeded to walk around the block to think about this for a moment alone and gather my thoughts. It´s been a very frustrating week for me. I´ve been home alone during the week watching the events unfold with this Vietnam War thing, and now they are instituting the draft. Joey and I could get drafted into this war. I received my fourth speeding ticket to arrive here, and I will most certainly loose my right to drive for six months when I return. And now my girlfriend is playing a game with me. I was thinking. If I am her boyfriend then why does she not introduce me to everyone? That would be the correct thing to do. I am also with her best friend, and he also is a dancer...what is the problem? Why was she not very happy to see us? I would have been so delighted. What about this black male dancer she was performing with.... No. It is apparent that he is extremely gay...but they were very romantic on stage together.... God damn it! I then began to cry into tears out loud. I looked up at the stars.... Why did you have to make me go through this, I yelled. Then I ripped the gold chain with the crucifix attached off my neck that my mother had bought me, and I threw it at the stars as hard as I could throw it and yelled, You mutherfucker! Damn you! I then fell to the ground in tears. I pouted there for about ten minutes in agony. I slowly started to regain my composure. I got up and returned to where Amadeo was waiting. Amadeo asked, Are you all right. I told him that I was, and I said, Let´s get the fuck out of here. Amadeo asked, Where are we going? I replied, Back to New York...fuck it!

Amadeo and I had a very encouraging conversation with one another during the ride back home to New York. He felt as bad as I felt, because she treated him as evasive as she treated me. Maybe we were over reacting. After all, we did not inform her that we were coming. What did we expect? Did we expect her to drop everything because we arrived unannounced? These were some off the wall thoughts that we were bouncing back and forth to one another. I told Amadeo that something is up with her. I could feel it. I do not feel the same way about her anymore. I am a man, and I am not going to make my girlfriend treat me like this. It was an exhausting trip. I received a speeding ticket to boot. However, Montreal was beautiful. We arrived back home at Yvonne´s apartment, and I went to sleep in the bedroom while Amadeo went to sleep on the couch in the living room. We were totally exhausted.

I woke up around 8:00 that Sunday evening to find that Amadeo had prepared me a dinner that was sitting on the stove. He returned to his apartment and left me an encouraging note. He had been so wonderful in keeping me on track, and being an extraordinary friend, especially in time of need. On our way home, he made jokes to make me laugh, and kept me in Great Spirit. Amadeo is a good friend. I do not look at him as a gay person. Amadeo had never come on to me in the slightest way. Nor did he ever do other than wonderful things for me, because he wanted to go to bed with me. He was an incredible person. He kept his personal affairs private, and I am proud to have a friend such as him.

I ate the dinner that Amadeo prepared for me, and I needed a pick-me-up. Therefore, I strolled to bar on 9th Street down the block from Trude Heller´s. As soon as I entered I saw Barbara and her friends sitting at the bar. I walked over to them and said hello, but Barbara acted very cold to me. I could not blame her, because I had been away from her for a long time. She never knew I was living with Yvonne. However, it took some doing, but it didn´t take long for Barbara to warm up to me again. The way to quickly forget about a corrupt love relationship is to quickly find another one. We all talked for over an hour and then I asked Barbara if she would like to go with me to our famous parking spot in Jersey City. Barbara agreed. Barbara and I drove to our spot and began making out again. This time I began to feel her beautiful little breasts. They felt wonderful, and she really enjoyed it. Before, when we were making out, I had never touched her. This time I made it a point to progress with her. I was about time. This quickly took me out of my bad mood that Yvonne´s actions had created. We carried on until the sun came up.

To my surprise, Yvonne returned home, sweet, loving, and excited to see me. She explained to me that it was just the wrong time to arrive in Montreal, and that the next day she was wondering why I had never called her at the hotel. We discussed the situation in great detail for hours, and then we both forgot about it with passionate sex. The band was returning to Trude Heller´s tonight, and she told me that she would be dancing there again beginning on Wednesday. She asked that we put the event behind us. I went along with it and told her OK, but I no longer believed or trusted her. The situation was way to bizarre to be believed.

The band opened at Trude´s again. It was wonderful to be playing. This is where all my bad thoughts fade away. It was good to see my brother, Joey the bass player again. During our break I told Joey the incident with Yvonne. Joey came back hard and told me that his girlfriend Evie might be pregnant. I was not too happy about that, but Joey assured me that it wouldn´t affect him playing with the band. Aldo and Ritchie were still single.

It was Wednesday and Yvonne left early in the morning for rehearsal. She had not returned to our apartment so I figured I would see her at the club tonight. When I arrived at Trude´s I had thought that Yvonne was going to be there, but she was not. I asked Amadeo if she was working tonight, and he said that she was not. I thought that to be odd and peculiar. Yvonne had been rehearsing all week at the ballet company, and I saw her quite periodic. Just before my first break, Yvonne showed up at the club. On my break, she told me that she wanted to talk with me and suggested we take a walk around the block.

We went outside and walked up 9th Street a little ways. We sat down on a quiet stoop, and Yvonne said, I had this boyfriend a couple of years ago. The apartment that we are living in was his apartment. We were about to be married when he suddenly disappeared. I waited for him to come back, but he never did. I received no phone calls.... I didn´t know where he was or what to do. I waited...and waited.... no news...no word.... nothing. It was two years ago that this had happened. I met you, you were wonderful, and I´ve fallen in love with you. Yesterday, he surprisingly called me. He told me that he wanted to come back to his apartment and make up for the lost time. He said that he became very frightened to marry me, and that he didn´t have the guts to tell me. He said that it would have killed him to see me hurt. So he just left, and went to Europe to find himself. He thought that I would eventually understand. When he called me, I was shocked to hear his voice and I began crying, because I told him that I was now in a relationship with someone whom I really love. He told me that he had found himself and was now ready for the relationship with her. I didn´t know what to say, because he kept on begging me to at least give it a try. Yvonne went on, she said, Chuck, I love you very much, but this man, I was in love with him for four years before he took off. Now that he is back, and I am now confronted with this.... I have to make a choice. Before I make a decision, I need to be with him again to find out if I still love him or not. It is something I need to do for myself. If I find I don´t love him anymore then it is you who I will return to. However, if I feel I still love and need him then I will marry him. However, I do not think that is the case... I just need some time to prove it to myself.

I could not believe what I was hearing, but I can deeply appreciate when someone is open and truthful. Then I feel comfortable to make an intelligent choice. I told Yvonne, Thank you for your honesty and openness, at least you´re not cheating behind my back. Go ahead, see if it is what you want...if it is, then if it is him that you choose. I completely understand. I´ll pack-up my stuff tonight after the gig, and I´ll go back to Brooklyn. Yvonne began crying and put her arms around me and held me for about five minutes while she was in tears. She then kissed me and said in a quiet voice, Thank you for understanding, and she then walked away.

I watched her walk away and I was shocked, but not depressed. I thought that she was open and honest about the situation and there was nothing I could do. I returned to Trude´s and told Amadeo and the band what had happened, and they both agreed that there was nothing I could do. The only thing that was bothering me was going back to that negative house in Brooklyn. One thing for sure, when I´m playing and singing with the band I am happy and at my best. Nothing bothers me then, but just having fun and a good time on stage. Besides, I still have Barbara as a backup. If happiness be the fruit of love, then play on.

When I arrived home, my family was surprised to see me, and welcomed me back. I also saw all my old friends in the neighborhood. Now that I was living in Brooklyn again, Joey and I would continue racing our cars home as we always did. We knew all the short cuts including all the little alleys and streets leading to the Brooklyn Bridge. Once on the Brooklyn Bridge it was a few hard turns and then on the BQE (Brooklyn Queens Expressway) which was all highway until we arrived to our exit of Cropsey Ave on the Belt Parkway. We got caught speeding several times by the Police and I now have 12 points on my license. I was forced to slow down and take it easy, because I wasn´t sure if the Motor Vehicle department would recognize that I had a speeding ticket upstate. With my license in jeopardy, I didn´t want to risk another speeding ticket for sure.

It has been one week since Yvonne and I separated, but I haven´t heard a word from Yvonne. I heard that Amadeo was now crashing at Yvonne´s apartment. Finally, I asked Amadeo what was going on with her. Amadeo replied that he didn´t know. I asked him to find out for me if he will, one-way or another. Amadeo suggested that I talk to her instead. He went on to say that she was leaving at 5:30 for rehearsal tomorrow night, and advised me to go to her apartment before she leaves to so that I may talk with her.

So the next day, I arrived at Yvonne´s apartment and caught her before she was leaving. When I looked at her blue eyes, blonde hair and beautifully shaped body, my heart fell in my hand. I realized again how beautiful she was and how much I missed all the great moments we had together. I asked her what was going on. She told me that she was leaving for France shortly, and that she decided to marry the guy. I felt very hurt emotionally. Noticing the expression on my face she said that she was leaving the apartment to Amadeo and me. She then gave me a set of keys and told me that the apartment would be available to me on Monday. She then gave me a big hug and left the apartment for rehearsal with the dance company.

Since I was in the city early with nothing to do, I decided to follow her, because I was curious whom this guy was that swept away my girl. I wanted to see the face of this man in person. Therefore, I followed her unknowingly into the subway station, and I entered the same train. I was in the car that was directly behind the car she was sitting in. She exited on 34th Street and I continued to follow her. She stopped and waited in front of this building. It was now dark so I needed to remain close if I was going to see what this man looked like. I waited across the street on the same side, and I watched patiently.

Then a figure of a man came out of the building and I could see her face light up. They hugged and kissed passionately for a moment. Yvonne then took his hand and they both began walking north. I did not see who he was nor could I see his face. It was too dark. So I continued to follow them as I tried to move-in closer. I followed about a half a block running a little bit each moment to get nearer. Suddenly they stopped to look at a display window, and this man turned to look at my direction. I stopped suddenly in shock and starred at his face, but he did not know me. I suddenly became very angry. I can´t believe it. He is the gay black male dancer that she was performing with in Montreal. I stood there frozen as they continued walking. I was thinking as I watched them disappear north into the crowd. Everything made sense now. My intuitive feelings were correct from the very beginning. I kept on thinking in shock. Everything she said to me in Montreal was a lie. In fact, the whole story she gave me on the side street of Trude´s was a lie also. Everything was a lie from the beginning. I could not believe that someone would go to so much trouble to make-up a story like that. Holy Shit! In a matter of seconds I was putting all this together. What really made me angry is that I had lost my beautiful French girlfriend to a gay nigger. I don´t believe this. Of all things, a gay nigger! I was furiously angry. Why did this happen to me? I turned around and walked back to subway to return to the village. The thoughts were slowly coming together in my mind. The more I thought, the worst it got, because I was thinking how she came home to me and apologized, and all the while... Oh man, how sad!

Before I entered the subway, I decided to have a quick meal at Tads Steaks A good $399 Tad steak will make me feel better, and I needed a place to think for a moment. I took a tray and ordered a Tad steak that came with a salad and a toasted bun. I sat at a lonely table and enjoyed my meal as I thought about everything. After a half hour of this great meal, I then headed back to the village. I walked into the bar up from Trude´s, and Barbara was hanging-out waiting for me. I quickly ordered a Shivers Regal with ice depressingly. Then Barbara asked why I was here so early. I turned the question around and asked the same question. She told me that she had the day off from work and decided to catch my show. I did not tell her my story. Instead I put my arms around her. held her closely, and gave her a long juicy kiss. Barbara has a great figure. She made me feel very good again, and I needed that badly. Thank God, she was here. I then told Barbara that I was moving into the village on Monday. I stayed with her for a while and I needed to prepare for work. I asked Barbara to meet me inside the club.

I proceeded into the kitchen/dressing room in Trude´s and I told Amadeo what had happened and what I learned. Amadeo said that he loved me as a friend, but if he had known what she was doing he would have told me in one way or another. However, Yvonne kept him in the dark also. We talked about living in the same apartment together and Amadeo had no problem. "Just keep the place clean", he said. He then went on to say, If he brings a man over occasionally, just split somewhere for the night and I will do the same if you want to bring home a girl. OK! I told him that the arrangement would be great. I asked him if Yvonne was returning tonight and he said no. She won't return until Sunday night. That is her last night. I asked Amadeo if I could bring Barbara over tonight and Amadeo said no problem. I´ll find a place to sleep tonight. Amadeo said have a good time and forget about Yvonne. Wow! What a great friend!

After the gig at Trude´s, I took Barbara to the apartment. We went up to the roof of the apartment building and made love all night long. The next morning Barbara had to leave, because she was living with her strict sister and brother in law, and she was afraid of getting in trouble. However, I will be with her all weekend.

My mother contacted me and told me to come home. She said that my father was very sick. It appeared that my father checked into the hospital and did not return. When I arrived home, my Mother told me that my father had cancer and he was going to die. I said to her, "Just like that?" "Just like that", she replied. How long does he have? I asked. My mother said, Maybe two weeks! My father is giving-up on life, and in some way I do not blame him. I knew that the Kennedy assassination was too much for him. My father is a sensitive man, and I believe that I possess the same sensitivity also. I went to see him, and he looked very bad. What am I to do? I visited him a couple of times and suddenly he was gone. Quick, just like that! We had the funeral, everyone was present, and he was buried in Long Island. However, I refused to go to the burial. I did not want to see my father being lowered into the ground. I wanted to remember him as he was without the burial view in my mind. My heart is shattered now. He and my sister Marie were the only one´s that appreciated my music. First I loose my girlfriend, and then I loose the most important person in my life, my wonderful father. The following week, something worse again happened. Joey and I received a letter from the draft board to report for classification for enlistment into the Army. The Army draft call for classification. Ritchie the sax is 25 years old; too old for classification, and Aldo is still not a Citizen. Our government has gone crazy and my world is turning upside down.

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Chapter 15 - Peter and Gordon

2006-04-26T21:34:00.000-04:00

Chapter 15 - Peter and Gordon

I arrived at the draft board for my physical and all my high school buddies were there. All the old faces! My old buddies told me that I used to be a brown nose in High School and I got away with everything. Everyone was telling me, Let´s see you get away with this one Charlie Brown? This looked serious, and I was determined to flunk this physical some way some how.

The first thing the draft board did was to weigh us, and then they gave us a written test. I learned that the passing mark on this test was 30. The test consisted of a picture of a hammer on one side of the test paper, and a picture of a saw, a drill, a screwdriver, a nail, and pliers. You had to circle the one that matched. I circled the screwdriver on purpose. I did this with all the questions, but I had answered some of them right to not be too obvious I was trying to flunk the test. I brought my test to be marked and I received a score of 31. Shit! I fucked up! Now I had to go on to the hearing test. I told the man that I was slightly deaf in one ear. He asked me a few questions and directed me downstairs to the basement for a special hearing test. Once in the basement they put me in an isolation booth and gave me a switch with a button on top, and they told me to press the button every time I heard something. They told me to not press the button when everything was silent. Then they put a set of headphones on me and closed the door. I waited for the first sound and I purposely did not push the button. Then when it was silent I pushed the button on purpose. When the hearing test was over they had told me that I passed. What? I was beginning to get very depressed. I did not want to go to Vietnam. These tests were the only tests that I had control over. All the other tests were physical standards. At the end of the physical, all my friends from high school and I were on line waiting to be classified. As my buddies were classified one by one as 1A, which means you´ll be drafted soon, I went up for my classification and they classified me as 1Y, which meant that I would not be drafted. I jumped with joy and asked the man how that came to be and he said, You are underweight. I said nothing more, but my school buddies were pissed saying, He got away with it again! I was smiling and very happy as I left the physical. 1Y means that in the future I might be called back for another physical to see if I had gained any weight, but realistically, they will never call me.

Joey on the other hand was classified 1A, and the band and I became worried. You never know, it could be along time before they call Joey or it could be tomorrow. We now had to keep our eyes open for a new bass player, and Joey would be a most difficult guy in the band to replace.

The William Morris agency booked us at the ultimate concert. We were going to back-up Peter & Gordon in their first United States tour beginning at the
Atlantic City Steel Pier. When Aldo told us, we were totally overwhelmed. We had told all of our friends that we were backing-up Peter & Gordon and they were astounded. We were supposed to meet with Peter & Gordon at the Steel Pier at 1:30pm on Friday. As we did with all the groups we backed-up live, we learned and practiced their songs in advance. This made us very prepared and ready.

Peter Asher, of Peter & Gordon, is the brother of Paul McCartney´s girlfriend, Jane Asher. The Beatles, Lennon and McCartney, wrote the hit song for Peter & Gordon called, A World Without Love. Performing for Peter & Gordon is like performing with The Beatles. It is truly the ultimate concert.

We had arrived at the Steel Pier at about 1:30pm and we were having difficulty locating the entrance. We needed to drive our vehicles close to the stage to unload our gear. After asking around a bit, a police officer kindly directed us. As we drove on to the pier to the rear, we heard music playing and it sounded live. I told the guys to wait in the car so that I could see if this was the stage entrance. I proceeded into this big double side door, and when I entered, I saw Peter & Gordon rehearsing with an unknown band. Confused, I quickly returned to the car and told the guys that Peter & Gordon were rehearsing with another band. Aldo and I returned to investigate.

We walked in the giant hall and proceeded to the stage where they were rehearsing. They were in the middle of practicing one of their songs, and they were having trouble getting the band to groove to their music. Still confused, I finally interrupted them and Gordon got very angry. He yelled to me, Whaaat? Can´t you see we are rehearsing!? I told him that we are the band that was hired to back you up. Gordon replied, We have a band! Completely confused, I continued to add that the William Morris Agency hired us to perform with you. Gordon sarcastically replied, We don´t need two bands. This band is fine and they are already set-up. You should have gotten here sooner. I told them that we just drove two hours from New York. Gordon sarcastically again said, You could drive back to New York.... now leave us alone we have a lot of work to do. Aldo and I with our heads down in disappointment returned to the cars to convey to Joey and Ritchie the bad news. Joey and Ritchie flipped out. We were getting ready to drive back, and I thought that if they knew how good we were and how prepared we were, they would not send us away. I told the guys to hold on a moment and I went returned to the stage.

I approached them again and said, Listen, we drove a long way to get here.... the agent hired us for a reason.... if you could be so kind to let us play just one song with you to give you an idea of why we are here.... if you don´t like us we will then leave.... please give us the chance to at least show you... we already know your songs! Gordon looked at Peter disgustingly and Peter replied, OK, just one song.

I quickly ran back to the car and told the guys... Let´s go.... we got one shot.... so let´s make it good. We grabbed our guitars and proceeded inside, and plugged into the other bands amps on the stage. Aldo got on the other bands drums. I said which song would you like, and Gordon replied, World Without Love. They counted off the song and we played. Peter & Gordon thus went into shock. One had to see the look on their faces. They could not believe that we sounded so big and polished, and that we went through the song completely from start to finish without a mistake or problem. The other band looked on in amazement. Then Peter said, You guys are fucking great, you´re in! We responded with confidence. Then Peter & Gordon told the other band to pack up and leave, and they did. As the other band was packing-up their gear, the leader of the group began softly cursing to me. I replied to him that we were sent by the William Morris agency to back them up. I added that there was nothing I could do! I kind of felt sorry for them. After all, they just lost the chance to back-up P&G. After the other band departed, we brought our instruments in to set-up on stage. We then went over two more tunes, and Peter & Gordon fell completely in love with us. They replied to us that there was no need to practice anymore. They then invite us to grab a bite to eat, and then join with them at their hotel. The road manager of Peter & Gordon suddenly arrived. His name is Keith and we were introduced. Keith is one of the most pleasant persons we had ever met. He was very warm, and he got a kick out of our personality. We all then got into their limousine and drove to a really nice restaurant where we all had dinner. This beautiful, very sexy, blonde girl was waiting for Gordon when we arrived. He was constantly putting his hands between her legs in front of everyone, and she happily enjoyed it. Personally, it made me very horny. After dinner, we told P&G that we needed to book a hotel room. The manager Keith called neighboring hotels to get us accommodations. The hotel that Peter & Gordon were staying at was sold out, just as their concert. Keith succeeded in getting us a hotel, and we went there to check-in and get ready for the evening performance. What Peter & Gordon didn´t know was that we brought the Beatle style jackets to wear for the performance. This would make our band look very English. We knew that the jackets would totally freak them out.

There were two shows scheduled each day, one at 7:00pm, and another at 9:30pm on Friday, and 4:00 pm and 7:30pm on Saturday night. Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs is also performing. When we arrived for the opening show, Peter and Gordon freaked at the way we were dressed. They were in complete shock. We American boys looked as though we were from England. Actually, know could tell otherwise. We fit right in, and the show went on without a hitch. We even bowed in unison just as The Beatles did when they finished a song. We acted totally authentic. The crowd totally went wild during the performance. The show continued on without a hitch. The next day, Joey´s mother, and sister Gracie arrived to hopefully meet P&G in person through us and to watch the concert. No one else´s family came to enjoy the greatness, not even mine. However, Joey´s family is my family and that is all that counted. We invited Joey´s mom and Gracie backstage to meet Peter & Gordon. Gracie was completely overwhelmed. Joey´s mother wanted to take a picture of us with Peter & Gordon, and P&G didn´t mind a bit. So we all went to the rear of the Steel Pier and Gracie took this photo use above.

During our first break on Saturday afternoon, we tried to roam around the Steel Pier, but wherever we looked there were girls waiting to overwhelm us. The girls, and there were hundreds of them, wanted autographs or wanted to sleep with us. We knew we had to try to find a way around them so we would not feel cooped-up in a cage. Joey and I found a secret door that lead to a passageway behind the audience area, and we decided to take that route. When we arrived at the end of the secret passageway, there was a door leading on to the Steel Pier in back of where the girls were waiting. We opened the door carefully and began to walk out into the open. Then suddenly one of the girls spotted us and screamed, There they are! This alerted the other girls who were waiting for us, and before we knew it the mob of girls were running toward us. Joey and I began running very quickly while laughing. I was just like the scene from The Beatles movie,
Hard Days Night . Joey and I ran like crazy, and through twists and turns.... we lost the girls and ended-up out on the main boardwalk. Joey and I mingled though the crowd.

Joey and I met two girls and the one I ended up with was 14 years old. She wanted to go with me to my hotel. She was real cute, and I noticed that it would be a special moment to remember if I took her to my hotel...so I did. Once in the room we sat on the bed and I kissed her, but wouldn´t have sex with her. I guess she will treasure that kiss. Actually my purpose was to keep this little girl busy while Joey played around with his big sister. The girl and I left the hotel and we walked back to the Steel Pier via the boardwalk. It was a soft beautiful night strolling on the boardwalk. As I looked at the gigantic marquee on the Steel Pier, which read in bright lights about 20 feet high: TONIGHT PETER & GORDON.... Then under that with letters 10 feet high read: SAM THE SHAM AND THE PHARAOHS. I stared at the sign as we were walking and I thought, Where was our name? We were the heart and soul of the background music, but our name The Van-Dells was not there. If only we could get some visual credit sometime. Maybe I´m too anxious, or maybe we have to pay more dues. I don´t know. Anyway, the 14-year-old girl and I returned to the boardwalk. We found Joey who was in a quiet cozy spot on the boardwalk with her older sister. This little girl was real cute and shy and she touched my heart. I really enjoyed being with her and she will probably tell all her friends for years to come that she went to the hotel of Peter & Gordon, and kissed one of the band members.

Joey and I returned to the Steel Pier. There is no way to get around all these crazy girls waiting for us. We have to give them autographs. The girls had pictures of Peter & Gordon and we proceeded to autograph them until our hands started to fall apart. Then Joey and I quickly began running until we arrived in the protected security area.

After the second show with Peter & Gordon, we all entered the limo and proceeded to all go out for dinner. Joey and I did not have time to say goodbye to Gracie and his mother, but we knew they would understand and we would contact them latter.

Peter & Gordon quickly became attached to us, because not only were we a handsome group of guys, but we were a great sounding band. They knew how great they sounded live with us, and we blended right in with their look. They wanted us for future tours throughout the U.S. We all became good friends. I especially became good friends with Peter. The weekend tour was very successful and we all had a great time. Peter & Gordon had to suddenly go back to England for an important TV appearance. They asked me if I could hold their instruments at my house until they arrived back in the U.S. Of course I said yes. When we arrived at my block in Brooklyn with Peter & Gordon, everyone in the neighborhood was shocked to see them in physical form. We unloaded their instruments into my basement and Peter & Gordon left to return at a later date. All my neighbors and friends hanging and watching about were in shock. They knew then that my band was the band of the stars.

My neighbor Joey, who was Jenny´s son, saw me with Peter & Gordon and came to me and wanted to learn an instrument. He was interested in learning how to play the bass. He also wanted to know what kind of bass to buy. I told him that the only great bass was a Fender Precision, and if he bought one I promised to teach him a few things to get him on his way. He was very happy, but my mother was not and started to complain about the added instruments in the basement. I told her they belonged to Peter & Gordon and she replied, Why don´t you get a job in the bank instead of fooling around with the music. I ignored her with mental confusion, because she always knew how to work on my head. She never has anything nice to say. In addition, my brother and sisters felt the same way, except my sister Maria, who was always very supportive and positive.

A month later, I was home in my house on 7th street and the phone rang. It was Keith, Peter and Gordon´s manager. He said that they had just arrived and they wanted to pick-up the instruments. I said OK, see you in a bit. All my neighborhood friends were playing stickball in front of my house on the street and I told them that Peter & Gordon are on their way here. They all looked at each other in confusion. P&G arrived and a crowd began forming. All the neighbors were out in front of their houses to look. P&G remained in the car, but everyone could see them well. Keith and I loaded the instruments in the car while Peter & Gordon stood patiently waving briefly to everyone. I asked them where they were going. They were very appreciative that I took good care of their instruments. They told me that they were staying at a hotel on 61st and Central Park West. Peter said, Why don´t you come down and hang-out with us tonight. They also told me that they were performing at The Brooklyn, Fox and they were trying to arrange for The Van-Dells to be their backup. I was much honored, and I told them that I would be there in a few hours. They gave me their room number.

I returned to play a little stickball on the street and afterward I had dinner. After dinner, I took a shower, dressed, and then I jumped into my 1963 canary-yellow Chevy convertible and headed to the city (Manhattan). I arrived at the hotel and passed through security with no problem after they called and checked. I entered the elevator and exited the 18th floor where there were cute little chickadees hanging about, and I entered P&G´s room. As I entered, Gordon was in bed playing with his sexy girlfriend. He pointed to the entrance of the next room where Keith and Peter were. I entered the next room to view Peter and Keith eating at a table. They quickly invited me to join in. We eat and talked for a while then Gordon joined us. Keith, and P&G began talking about all the little appearances they were doing the next day and they were trying to plan how many, and how to get there on time through all the traffic. After all, they can´t take the subway. I told them that I would drive them around if they wanted. I have a brand new Impala convertible, and it´s going to be a beautiful sunny day tomorrow. P&G said, Yea, that sounds like fun.

Since my band had nothing scheduled this week I devoted my time to helping them. This would be a great opportunity to meet new people in the music business and at the same time be a spokesperson for my band. Since I was constantly around them, I will try to get my band in with them if they are going to be performing live somewhere. The day went off without a hitch. We were able to successfully meet the schedule for the day.

The next day, they were scheduled to perform on the T.V. show, Hullabaloo, which was being videotaped in Brooklyn not to far from my house. As a spokesperson for the band I asked if my band could perform with them. They told me that they would be singing to the record, but they told me that I could come along if I wanted. Of course I told them I would. Peter then proceeded to give me the studios name, address, and what time to meet there.

The next day I arrived at the shooting of Hullabaloo, which would air the following Saturday night. I learned that the group, The Animals is also there to perform on the show. I met and chatted with The Animals, specifically their keyboardist Chaz Chandler, and we became good friends. He and I talked for a long while. I then watched their performance of, We Gotta Get Out Of This Place, a great song. Hullabaloo set designers made a great weird backdrop set with smoke, and it looked fantastic. After their performance, Chaz came to me and asked me for my phone number. He told me that when he would arrive in town, he would give me a call. I met many people through Peter & Gordon, but it proved to be worthless in the long run. Then it was P&G´s turn to be videotaped. I watched in great frustration, because I wanted my band to perform also. Unlike the Animals backdrop, P&G´s backdrop is very dull. It would have been livelier if my band was standing and playing behind them. However, their mimicking of their record went well. After the performance, they returned to their hotel and I was again invited to join them, which I did.

At their hotel, I learned that they were appearing at Murray the K´s
Brooklyn Fox on Friday night. When I heard this, I freaked! The Brooklyn Fox and Murray the K! This is where it all began for me. This is where I developed my inspiration to perform. I remembered years earlier when I went to see
The Ronnettes . This is where all the stars perform. This is the place to be. I quickly said to Peter, You´ve got to get The Van-Dells to perform with you. Murray the K has a great band, but they are mostly R&B. You don´t need a big band to perform with you. You wouldn´t sound right. The Van-Dells would make you sound just like the record. Peter replied, You´re right, that´s a good idea! Is your band available? I told him that we had the weekend off. Peter then said, Call the band and put them on hold. We will need to arrange for your band to perform with us. I won´t be able to do it until we talk with the people at the Brooklyn Fox. Therefore, have your band ready. I´ll call them right now, I replied with excitement. I quickly called Joey on the hotel phone and gave him the good news. Joey would contact Aldo to keep the band on hold. I told Joey that it would be a last minute thing and that I needed everyone in the band to be at the Brooklyn Fox within twenty minutes when I called to give them the OK. I´m so excited. I can´t believe that we are going to play the Brooklyn Fox. This is really my dream come true.

It´s Friday night, and Peter and Gordon are appearing at the Brooklyn Fox with The Animals and The Moody Blues. I arrived at the stage entrance at 7:00pm. The show starts at 9:00pm. I was immediately halted by stage security. I told them I was with P&G. A few of the guards then walked me through these dark narrow hallways that passed many opened dressing rooms. I could see all the stars hanging out in their rooms as I passed. I saw The Animals in one room and quickly said hello to my friend keyboardist, Chaz. Chaz was happy to see me there. I then passed the
Moody Blues and said a brief hello and asked how they were doing, but they didn't know who I was so I told them that I was with Peter and Gordon and then they said oh OK! Then as I followed the security people, they led me to P&G dressing room and one of the guards asked Peter, Do you know this person? Peter replied, Yes, he´s a member of our band. They then gave me a security sticker, which I wore around my neck, and I was in! What a great experience! I cannot believe that I have finally made it into the Brooklyn Fox.

I immediately asked Peter, Did you talk with the correct people about The Van-Dells backing you? Peter replied that he did, and he was waiting for a reply. I asked, What do you think. Are you going to have any problems getting us in? Peter replied, I don´t think so. I told them that it would be better for us to use our own band. Then he asked, Is your band ready? I replied, There waiting by the phone for my call. They will be here within twenty minutes as promised. I had access to the entire backstage so I decided to walk around a bit to take a look at everything.

An hour quickly passed. I returned to P&G´s dressing room and I asked Peter if he heard anything. Peter said that he was told that the person in charge had not arrived yet. I told Peter that it was 8:00pm and that we are going to cut it close. Peter said that the person in charge should be arriving soon. Shortly thereafter, the promoter arrived in P&G´s dressing room. The promoter said to P&G as I looked on, So what is it. You want to perform with your back-up band. Peter replied, Yes, we will sound better with our group. The promoter replied, We have the arrangements to your songs. I´m sure your going to like the big band. Peter said, It would be better with our own group. The promoter came back, I don´t think it would be good to change the format. The format is set. It would be best if you left things as they are. We would have to re-mike the stage for your band and that will offset our time schedule. It would create problems that we do not need right now. Stay with the format. You are going to like the big band. I looked on in shock. Gordon jumped into the conversation and said, No problem. We will perform with the big band. We will stay with the format. And that was that! I can´t believe it. I was very furious with Gordon, but I said nothing. Peter seen that my heart fell in my hand and said to me that he had tried. I told Peter and Gordon that all they had to do was insist, and we would be in. You guys are going to sound very weird with a big band. The Animals have there own band and The Moody blues have there own band, but you guy´s are going to perform with a big band. It´s that crazy! You´re not even going to sound like yourselves. Peter replied, I don´t know? We might like it. It´ll be different. I then told them that I needed to cancel my bands standby as I exited their dressing room.

I went to the nearest stage telephone and called Joey with the bad news. Joey was not disappointed and replied that he would contact Aldo. I guess my band didn´t care very much about this gig. This was my thing. It was I that wanted to perform here very badly. I tried very hard and desperately to make this dream come true.

As soon as I hung-up the telephone with Joey, Peter, with his guitar in hand said, Chuck, I have a little time now so come with me, I want to show you something. So I followed him through this door and up this staircase to a very quiet area and we both sat down. Peter said that while he was in England, Paul McCartney called him up and told him that he was doing something very different musically with strings. McCartney asked Peter to come to the studio to watch. Peter described it with detail explaining that he was watching Paul with a string quartet recording this beautiful song. Then Peter put his guitar on his lap, and began playing and singing the song titled Yesterday. I listened as Peter began singing the song. He fumbled the words at times so it was difficult to get the full picture. When Peter finished singing it, he asked me what I thought. I replied that the song was very nice and kind of different. Peter told me that Paul was doing the entire album with strings. It was not until the record came out that I realized the profoundness of that moment with Peter. Peter was trying to cheer me up, because he knew how disappointed I was not performing at the Brooklyn Fox, and how much it meant to me. However, I was feeling much better now that Peter sang that song to me and shared the story.... It will always be a special wonderful moment that happened in my life. We then returned downstairs, because the show was about to begin. Peter returned to the dressing and I roamed around to find a spot where I could watch the show.

Suddenly, Murray the K walked passed me to enter the stage and begin the show. I became very depressed again that I almost began to cry. I didn´t want to return to P&G´s dressing room in this state that I was in. I began strolling about backstage looking for a quiet spot to watch the show as the energy began building. Then Murray the K introduced The Animals. I found a lonely spot on the left side of the stage in-between two black curtains. I was so close to the stage that it was almost as if I was performing. I then broke out in tears as I watched The Animals perform. I cried for about ten minutes. I was alone and no one could hear or see me. I had to let it all out. Eventually, I regained my composure as I thought how I had tried so hard, and that I gave it my best effort. I was so close, and I almost had it and after a few moments, I said to myself yes but I'm here.. Then a few moments later I thought again aaandaid, No. I was almost here. Then Murray the K announced Peter & Gordon. The curtain then opened to expose the big R&B band and P&G walked out on stage. The big band began playing, A World Without Love, and it sounded ridiculous. P&G began singing as if they were into the music, but I could see that they were not. It all sounded so bad. Not even like the record. They were wearing their acoustic guitars, but nowhere could you hear the sound of an acoustic guitar. The guitars weren't amplified. I was totally ridiculous.

After their performance, I returned to P&G´s dressing room. I thanked them for everything and said goodbye, because they were leaving to return back to England the following morning. In one moment, I cherished all the wonderful times I had with them, and in another moment, I felt so sad that I could not capitalize on being with them. I did in a way. I gained a great friendship with them and hey took me many places such as here. They always invited me everywhere they went. So there is a great positive side of it. It's just the frustration of almost being there that always hurts so much. We shook hands and gave each other strong hugs. They thanked me for all my help, and for making them feel more at home in New York. I thanked their road manager Keith, and then I returned the security pass. As I walked down the passageway passed the dressing rooms to the stage door, everyone was happy and partying. I felt left out... alone...not apart of all of it! I then reluctantly exited out the stage door. To my surprise, there was a red carpet leading to the street with people ropped-off on both sides waiting to catch a glimpse of the musical stars and they left the theatre. Everyone looked and stared at me. I knew that they were wondering who I was. As I proceeded down this isle of red carpet to the street, I thought, I´m a talented nobody right now, but tomorrow will be another day.

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Chapter 16 - Florida

2006-04-25T10:10:00.000-04:00

Chapter 16 - Florida

From the Brooklyn Fox, I went directly to Trude´s for a pick-me-up, and to hopefully to hookup with Barbara. I was hoping she was there so that we could make love again all night long. When I entered Trude´s, Barbara and her girlfriends were there hanging out. I went over to her and she smiled at me. I put my arm around her and her girlfriend said jokingly as they always say to me, "It's about time you showed up! Barbara has been waiting for you." They laughed! I thought as I ordered a drink that this girl is always waiting for me. I should marry this girl. She has been there for me since the beginning of the Eighth Wonder. I've been fooling around with other girls and at the same time being with her. There were many times that I didn't see her for a month, because I was fooling around with someone else, but when I returned to look for her, she was always there waiting for me to return. I asked Barbara if she wanted to go to my apartment tonight and she replied, "Let's go!" We hung out for a while listening and dancing to Benny Gordon's band and then we had a wonderful stroll to my apartment on Perry Street. I escorted her to the rooftop of my apartment building, and again we made love till the sun came up. What a cute little beautiful body this girl has. I am blessed with her. I really should marry this girl. Again, Barbara had to leave in the morning to return home to her sister and brother-in-law's house. I got very pissed off at her, because I wanted so much to be with her all day. However, Barbara insisted that if she didn't leave then she would be in deep trouble. I wanted to tell her that I would marry her, but I could get the guts-up to follow-up on that commitment

I slept most of that Sunday and awoke late that early evening. Amadeo told me that he invited some people over, and I told him that I would sleep in Brooklyn tonight.

The following Monday, I received a letter from the Motor Vehicle Department. I was requested to report to court on Thursday to review my driving record. I arrived in court and the Judge looked at my accumulated ticket points and quickly revoked my license for six months. Devastated, I then proceeded to call my brother Tom in Long Island to ask him if I could store my car in his garage for six months. My brother said yes. I then called Joey and told him the bad news. Then, I illegally drove my car to my brother's house in Garden City, Long Island and parked my Chevy into his garage. I disconnected the battery and hung out in Long Island for the next couple of days. It was great playing with my nieces and nephews. It made my feelings seem a little better. My nephew Tommy wanted to learn how to play the guitar. My nephews and nieces thought I was the greatest uncle in the world, because I played with all the big stars.

Aldo called Joey, who then called me, and said that a new booking agency, specifically The Jack Fisher Agency, wanted to know if we wanted to go out on the road. We would travel to Florida playing gigs along the way in other cities. I told Joey that it would be great for me, because I didn't have a car and it would give me time to burn to get it back. Everyone was for it, because it would be nice to take a break from New York, which can become overwhelming at times. Since none of us has ever been outside New York, it was a great opportunity to be paid to see the world, as it goes.

I have been pressing Aldo for a long time to find a trumpet player so that we could complete the band and sound the way we always wanted to. We needed a trumpet to compete with the black R&B Bands. Aldo had been waiting for the right moment (money wise) to make an addition to the band, and I guess this was the moment. Ritchie the sax player knew this trumpet player named Joey. We had always wanted a trumpet player to complete the real R&B sound, and Aldo thought it would be a great opportunity to break someone in out on the road. We invited the trumpet player whose name is also Joey, to a rehearsal. The band sounded great with a trumpet. Just the way we wanted it to sound, but this new guy is a little weird. He's not very hip. In fact, he's very square, and he doesn't quite fit the image of the band. He's around the same age as Ritchie the sax, but his image is not way off from what we had hoped to expect. Anyway, I figured that maybe Joey the bass and I could hip him up a little bit. We also figured that we were going on the road and that this would be a chance to work him in. If he doesn't fit the bill when we return to New York, we could always try to find a replacement. Therefore, it was done. We had a few rehearsals with Joey the trumpet, and the band sounded great. It was Ritchie's job to get Joey trumpet up to speed. How we were complete and totally happening. We decided to change the name of the band. We thought that The Van-Dells name was getting sort of old and outdated. Therefore, we decided to call ourselves on the road, The Colt 45´s. We took a new photo of the band, and bought new uniforms. We rented a U-haul trailer and off we went.

Our first stop was the Jersey shore, as it is called. Specifically,
Seaside Heights! It is the southern shore of New Jersey. It is about four and a half hours from New York City. We opened at a club located on the boardwalk near the beach. We blew everyone away with our new sound. We all met many girls, and the girls are numerous. The next day, the entire band partied on the beach. Surprisingly, Aldo met a girl. Her name was Jane and they are getting along very well. They are hanging out with each other most of the day. Fantastic! I in turn, met this beautiful blond Diane. Joey had Evie back at home so he didn't fool around too much. Ritchie and the trumpet player Joey also met some cute girls. There were plenty of girls for everyone, and it was great to play at the beach. It is what our band needed most, a good holiday. We all were away from home, together all the time, and we are all getting deep tans. We are all looking beautiful and we feel great.

This girl Diane is fucking beautiful, and she likes me a lot. She's got a slim body with a great ass and normal size tits. She's got long silky blond hair down to here ass and stands about five foot ten. She is amazing looking. Her mother is also beautiful and single. I think that her mother wants to be with me also. I don't know how to handle this. I think I'll just fight off the mother and work on the daughter. Apparently, the mother is divorced. So here they are at the Jersey shore looking for action, and I have the both of them. Then I learn that her daughter was sixteen years old and still a virgin at least that was what the mother told me. The mother then said that I would have to take it slow with her daughter, but her daughter wanted me badly. I assured the mother that I was a good guy and that I would treat her daughter well. It was all up-hill from there. I would find a nice quiet spot on the beach and make out with her daughter all night. After a couple of weeks without any hassles or care in the world, The Colt 45´s were happening. We are very tight, and we learned a whole new batch of songs. Now with a trumpet there is nothing we can't do. We have all our options covered. When we get back to New York we should be on fire. We are going to tear up New York.

Everyone in the band called home to tell their families that everything was moving well. I contacted my great friend Amadeo. I wanted to say hello to everyone at Trude´s and to Joel Heller. As I was talking to Amadeo on the phone telling him that everything was fine, Amadeo said, Guess who's here. I said, "Who?" He replied, "Yvonne. Hold on say hello to her", as he passed her the phone. "Hi, how are your doing," said Yvonne. I went into silent shock. I didn't know what to say. It was definitely unexpected. How's everything out there in Seaside Heights. It must be nice having the beach everyday. I wanted to say, "What happened to your black fagot nigger boyfriend, but instead I said, "What happened to your boyfriend?" Yvonne replied that they had to split for a while. "Oh, that's too bad," I smirchingly replied. She said that they had to split, because he was in another show. It was not what I wanted to hear from her. My first thought was that she might have broken-up with him, but now I see that it is a temporary thing. Therefore, I replied, "The band is doing great and we are playing here in a beautiful club. We are enjoying the sunny lifestyle, and there are many free girls. "Are you having fun with the girls?" Yvonne says. I replied, "You bet I am." "I was about to ask you if I could come there for a few days, but I don't want to interrupt anyone," Yvonne says. This statement caught me by surprise. "I have to think about this. Let me see if I could arrange it," I said to Yvonne. Yvonne replied, "OK.| I told her that I would call her tomorrow, and Amadeo returned to the phone. Amadeo said, "What did you think of that." I told him that I did not know, and that I needed to think about this. I told him that I would call them tomorrow. Wow, that's a freak out!

My mind immediately flashed into the night I saw her with this nigger. She smiled and kissed him and then walked off holding his hand very excited. All the while, she was giving me this elaborately made-up story. What balls on this fucking chick? Then the other side off me said well maybe she wants to get back with you again. Who knows? I went back and forth with myself. Yea, but I don't think I want her back. Yea, but she is beautiful, and she has a nice fucking body. But she's a fucking liar. Hey, I have Barbara in New York and now I have Diane, therefore, who needs this bitch anyway. OK, this is what I'm going to do. If she doesn't come to fuck me then I don't need her. The next day, I called Amadeo/Yvonne. I said to Yvonne, OK, if you want to come here I have my own room in a motel. She replied, "Maybe, I should get my own room." I said, "Look Yvonne, if you want to come here, but you don't want to be with me then I don't want you to come. "I want to be with you," she replied, "but I do not want to impose on you." I reiterated, "You sleep with me in my hotel room and there will be no problem." Yvonne agreed and she was going to meet me the following day. This is something else. I can't believe Yvonne is coming.

The next morning, Yvonne arrived. She was somehow very different, but she was still extremely sexy and beautiful. She seemed plastically warm and very distant. She immediately began acting as though she wasn't really with me. We went to my motel and we talked for a short while. I said, "So you're involved with that black dancer. She replied, "Yea, we have known each other for a long time." I couldn't believe she said that. She's certainly got a lot of nerve saying that to me. She is actually telling me that she had been lying to me all the while. I said to her, "Let's go for a stroll out on the beach." With that, Yvonne proceeded to remove her clothes in front of me and put on her bathing suit. It was a hell of a skimpy bathing suit and I knew that everyone would be staring at her. As she was dressing, I had noticed that she must have gotten her breasts filled with silicone, because they did not appear to be natural. They appeared to be up-lifted somehow. It immediately turned me off. Not to mention her little arrogant attitude.

Yvonne and I went out for a walk on the boardwalk. I decided to show her around the place for a bit before we hit the sand. Yvonne began walking about three feet in front of me like a high-class movie star. She was pretending and acting as though she was alone. I ignored her attitude, but I enjoyed watching her beautiful ass, which was difficult to take my eyes off of. We continued walking, and finally I stopped. I said, Hey, Where the fuck are you going? She stopped also and walked back to me and replied that she was sorry. She then began walking beside me, but slightly ahead. I then grabbed her hand. She held my hand without force as though she really didn't want to hold it. We then proceeded to the sand to soak up some sun. I tried to lie close to her at times, but she was unresponsive.

After enjoying the sand and sun, we went to dinner and then back to my motel. I began getting dressed for my night's performance, and then I decided to give her the same medicine. After I got dressed, I said to her, "See you at the club", and then I quickly walked out of the motel leaving her all by herself. She knew no one and she was completely taken by surprise. She had nowhere to go except meet me at the club. So how does it feel baby!

Yvonne finally appeared at the club and my band had the club jumping. She sat at the bar in front of us like a lost girl with no one to talk with. I think she was very surprised to hear our band with the trumpet, and that we sounded so great. I ignored looking at her except for a bit, and Diane and her mother were there also. After our set, I escorted Yvonne to a table. I asked her if she is having a good time and she complimented the new sound of the band. I then told her that I needed to make the rounds to say hello to everyone. I went to Diane and we talked for a while. I told Diane that my ex-girlfriend is here, but I assured Diane that I was interested in her only.

At the end of our performance, Yvonne and I returned to the motel. We entered the bed and I put my arm around her, but she was distant. I then began feeling her breasts hoping that I could turn her on also, but indeed, her breasts were silicone. They certainly felt strange. She is not the same girl I knew. She continued to act distant. I touched her beautiful ass as I pressed my dick against her pussy. She began to slightly get aroused. As I was feeling her as with my hard dick against her, I began to kiss her. She responded by kissing me in return. I then got on top of her and my hard dick slid right inside of her. She then went into a zombie stage as her emotions suddenly went cold. When I felt her lack of further response my dick automatically got soft. I had it with this girl. She is of no use. I then turned my back to her and tried to sleep. In the morning I will get rid of this unknown bitch.

In the morning, we awoke and dressed. I wanted to be mean to her, but I wanted the village apartment to be there for me when I returned to New York. Therefore, I handled her very diplomatically. I said to her, I guess you are going back to New York City? "Do you want me to leave?" she said knowing my disappointment. "I think it would be best," I replied, "After all, we are not happening." She then apologized to me for her actions and feelings last night, but her lies (bullshit) no longer matters to me. I need to get rid of this bitch because she is bringing me down again. I wasted an entire day with her and got nothing but continued depression and involvement in psychological games. As we exited the motel, it appeared that Joey met a girl last night and rented a room in the same motel also. Joey is out front entering his girl's vehicle. Joey seen me and gave me the thumbs-up sign. I gave Joey the thumbs down sign as Yvonne watched and he felt sorry for me. I then asked Joey if he and his girl could drive Yvonne to the bus station. Joey and his girl agreed. I put Yvonne in the car and told her to say hello to Amadeo and I told her to have a nice life, and off they went. It is the last time that I ever saw Yvonne. Good reddens!

I returned to house that was provided for the band and met Aldo, Ritchie and Joey the trumpet. We all went to the beach near the club. After a few hours of soaking in the sun, we met up with Joey the bass and afterwards, had a rehearsal to sharpen things up a bit. We all went out to dinner, then back to the house and performed that evening. I hooked-up with Diane, and Yvonne was now a distant memory. We finished performing for the week and now it was off to Washington D.C. Diane, her mother and I exchanged addresses and phone numbers, and the band was back on the road.

We had many laughs on the way down to D.C. We were acting like little kids, always playing practical jokes on one another. We arrived at the club, unloaded our instruments, and created a set on stage. We then went across the river into Virginia where we found a reasonably priced motel. The owners of the motel didn't like us very much. They pegged us as hippie, long hair freaks, but they rented the rooms to us anyway very reluctantly. Anyone with long hair was considered a hippie freak that used drugs. This is
the South now. We are considered Yankees. However, next to this motel is a 24-hour dinner, so it all was very convenient.

I didn't know it then, but I had learned about it later in my life that the South was the original American Republic and after the civil war, the United States became a corporate democracy.

At our first night at the club, we tore the place up. The people had never heard a band so funky and tight. The word quickly went out, and the next night, and the nights afterward, the club would be packed with a line outside to get in. This had never happened here at this club in Washington D.C.

On Saturday night, we had some unexpected visitors who came to hear our group. They are actors David Jansen who played The Fugitive, actor
Barry Sullivan, and the incredible Jane Mansfield. During our 40-minute break, when the club played pop records, David Jansen invited me to join them at their table. Actually, I did not know it at the time, but Jane Mansfield had a crush on me. I was sitting next to her and see was leaning very close to me rubbing her big tits against my arm. David Jansen is winking his eyes at me and smiling as if to say, she wants you and it's OK. A moment later, Barry Sullivan suggested that I dance with Jane on the dance floor. Jane is a wonderful sexy woman and I am shocked that she likes me very much. I didn't know how to act. So Jane and I went on the dance floor and the whole group was watching, as well as everyone else. Then a slow song came on, and Jane quickly put her arms around me to slow-dance. Her big tits pressed against my chest and made me feel like heaven. She was so soft and very feminine. Her beautiful hair just melted in my hand, and she smelled like a rose. I was really in heaven. This went on all night long. We are all drinking and getting drunk. Jane then asked me to go with her to the hotel, I was scared, and told her I didn't think it would be a good idea. She continued begging me as David and Barry was itching me on. I just held her in my arms and kissed her patiently. I told her to come by again tomorrow, because I was not ready for this. It was too overwhelming. She loved my honesty and understood, then they all said goodnight and thanked us for a wonderful time.

I had to put up with all the ribbing from the band members, but the next night I met a girl who was almost equal to Jane in figure and I took her back to the motel. The guys in the band also met girls and we had a big party in our rooms. The following day, everyone went to the lake to swim and I stayed behind with my girl. As soon as everyone left, I put this girl on the bed and started to take her clothes off. Then the house cleaner knocked on the door and aggressively wanted to clean the room by making sounds to enter. We both quickly jumped off the bed and dashed into the adjoining room. My girl got very frightened. I can hear the house cleaner fiddling with the keys to open the main room door. So I quickly threw the girl in the closet and told her to be quiet. The house cleaner entered the room and asked, "You don't have a girl in here, do you?" The management told us that we were supposed to behave and they specifically told us, no women. I told the house cleaner "No, I'm just resting." I asked the housecleaner to please be brief, because I wanted to return to sleep. The cleaner proceeded to clean the room while the girl was patiently quiet in the closet. The house cleaner started complaining about the mess, and asked if we had a party last night. I told her no, and she could tell I was lying about the party and the girl in the room. I had to protect the closet; I think the house cleaner knew the girl was there. The house cleaner was taking her time thinking that the girl would surface. Finally, I got pissed off and verbally attacked the maid and told her that if she didn't finish up in three minutes I was going to throw her out. She became offended by my verbal abuse. She thought I was nuts, and she quickly left. I locked the door and the girl and I resumed where we left off.

I quickly noticed the nasty attitude of America, once we left the New Jersey area. There seems to be a lot of hate in the way people look, talk, and act to northerners, if you are not from their area. They stereotype people with long hair as being unruly.

The next morning, on our way to the motel after the gig, around 2:30 in the morning, Joey and I decided to get something to eat at the diner next to the motel. We walked into the diner and sat down at the counter. Everyone began staring at us with our long hair. Joey and I ordered. There were two big redneck s sitting one stool away from Joey. We did not dare to look around, because we didn't want to start a fight. The server gave us our meal with a nasty face and we ignored everything as we eat. I could feel the nasty vibes. Everything is slightly mellow except these two redneck s sitting next to Joey. I can see through the corner of my eye that they were looking at us and mumbling something. Then as we just about finished our meal, the redneck s began talking louder and louder about the way we looked. The redneck's are very big and looked very tough. I said to Joey, ˜Let us get out of here. Then Joey surprisingly turned to the redneck s and said, "How would you guys like to get a big fat lip?" as he stared directly into the redneck eyes. I completely flipped out thinking to myself, Here we go. We are going to get our asses kicked. To my surprise, the redneck s instead of pouncing on us kept their mouth shut and turned away. What balls Joey had! After a month of performing in Washington D.C., it was time to hit the road to Florida.

A few of us, including myself, did not like the new name of the band, but that was the name until someone came up with a better one. We had a long wonderful restful drive to Florida. When we finally arrived at
Cocoa Beach, Florida club, it was closed down. . Aldo contacted the agency, and they gave Aldo an address of our next performance. We had a hard finding the address. It entered in a run-down area of the city of Cocoa Beach. We drove around in the dark trying to locate this address. I asked Aldo, You're sure this is right? Aldo said that this was the address the agency gave him. Finally, a black man flagged us down. We were a little afraid of stopping. The man said, "Are you guy's the band?" We happily said yes. "Where are we playing?" I asked. The man replied, "Over there in the basement." There is nothing but all black people. We were confused. Aldo, thinking we are in the wrong place asked the guy, "Do you know Jack Fisher?" The guy replied, "Yea, we called him for a band." The owner of this run-down house came over and looked at us and said to his partner, "What is this shit?" He is apparently very pissed off. We told him that our agent sent us here. The owner said, "I didn't ask him for any white band." We told him that we played R&B. The owner gave us the once over and saw how young and cleaned-cut we were, turned around, and walked back to the house saying, "I got to call this agent and find out what happened. He certainly appeared very disappointed. We nervously unpacked our instruments and we were escorted into this basement, which was packed full of black people. I love it! This is the audience for our music. Everyone seemed extremely disappointed and pissed when we walked in. We had to squeeze through the crowd to try to find an empty place to set-up. The people slowly began to move away so that we would have a little area to set-up, but we could see on the people's faces that they were also disappointed and that the house had made a mistake. We finished the set-up fast, because we knew what we were doing, and we are used to setting up quickly. This was actually the moment we have been waiting for. Our R&B is going to be a test right here and now if we can really be funky, but we knew we were going to freak these people out. These are the people of the music we love, and we are going to get down with them tonight.

I got on the mike and introduced us. I said, "We're going to get down tonight." I softly called out the first song to be 99 and 1/2, by Wilson Pickett to the band, and I began the guitar intro. The people all stared and watched us. They couldn't believe what I was playing. The people in the crowd were saying out load, Oh, my God, Oh, my God. As I began singing the first verse, all the people began to groove to the music as if we were all at home. The people loved us. When the song ended we immediately went into Can't Turn You Loose, by my music idol, Otis Redding. The place went jumping. The owner ran down the stairs and watched the grooving basement in disbelief. It was a most wonderful experience playing for the people whose music we loved, and it was a chance to perform for the real people who knew and loved R&B. We had it, we were funky and we knew it! The black people were so overwhelmed that they gave us all kinds of free food and free drinks and treated us like kings. It was the most rewarding experience we had to date.

The next day, the agency asked us to report to a club in Orlando, Florida, about 40 minutes away. We performed there for one month. The club was an older stuffy type of crowd, and we didn't really enjoy it, especially after doing the down-home black club, but we had to deal with it, because the money was good, and we needed it when we return to New York. This gig is a job and it feels like a job and unmemorable and thus we hated it.

Joey and I rented motorcycles and we drove around the area picking up girls. There was nothing but older woman in the club. It appeared to be a mafia type of place. One day, early in the morning, about a week later, while we were sleeping, and all of a sudden, we heard this loud bang and the walls of the motel shook. Joey and I jumped up and quickly ran outside to see what had happened. Apparently, Aldo decided to try to ride one of the motorcycles and he lost control and smashed into the wall of the motel spraining his wrist badly. We rushed him to the doctor and his arm was put into a sling. For an entire week, Aldo had to play with only one hand. When the week was over, Aldo´s sling was removed from his arm. The gig was finally over and it was time to return to New York. It was time to return to perform again at Trude Heller's.

Back at Trude´s, our band with the added trumpet player Joey was beyond comparison. We had not told Trude about the new member and she was trilled to hear us sounding so enormous, and quickly gave us the extra money for the new member of the band without asking. She was very happy to have us back. We were packing the place every night. We were now making so much money, that almost every night before I arrived at the club, I would stop to buy a brand new $35.00 shirt to wear for the performance. I wore nothing but brand new clothes. We were all making now about $700.00 a week each.

It was great seeing my good friend Amadeo again back at our Perry street apartment. We discussed the Yvonne visit to the Jersey shore. However, it was wonderful being with Barbara again. We went back to our weekend love affair on the rooftop at my Perry street apartment.

One night, during our break at Trude´s, a guy came over to me and introduced himself as Mitch. I said hello to him and he said, "You know, you guys have a great band." I said, "Thank you very much." He then went on to say that he was a singer from Detroit; he had heard that New York was happening, and he arrived with his band to try and get a job. I said to him, "You know, it's not easy thing to get in New York if your new!" He went on to say that he had asked someone where the most happening club in the city was, and they recommended Trude Heller's. He said that his band was outside, but they couldn't afford to come in. He continued saying that he and his band really needed to make some money quickly because their low on funds. He asked me if I could introduce him to Trude. I told him, "Why not speak to our drummer. He's the businessman of the group, and he has a great relationship with Trude." I asked Mitch to follow me to the kitchen area and I will introduce him to Aldo. I took Mitch, who seemed like a very nice sincere guy, to the kitchen/dressing room area where Aldo was hanging out. Mitch and I walked into the kitchen and I said to Aldo, "Aldo, I want to introduce you to Mitch," I then said, "Mitch what is your last name?" Mitch replied, "Ryder". I said, "Aldo this is Mitch Ryder, and he just arrived from Detroit with his band. They're looking for work." Aldo then arranged for Mitch to speak with Trude, and Trude arranged an audition at the Eighth Wonder. After a week or so, Mitch was playing the Eighth Wonder, Joel Heller's club, but Mitch's group didn't last very long at The Eighth Wonder.

A new group emerged in the scene that we did not ever hear about. Apparently, there was this club located uptown called the
Peppermint Lounge, which no one we knew was aware of. This group suddenly had the number one record on the charts called, The Peppermint Twist. The group, Joey Dee and the Starliters seem to come out of nowhere. The record was hot and suddenly, someone was giving Trude and us a run for the money. There is a line to get in every night at the Peppermint Lounge. How could this happen so suddenly? How could something like this pop-up without some kind of notice? This music business is so strange. Here we were the most happening band in the city and someone comes out of nowhere and gets a smash hit record. It sounds like Mafia work to me. Our band tried to visit the Peppermint Lounge one night, but the line was too long. Strangely enough, a few weeks later, our agent booked us into the Wagon Wheel club, which was located two blocks from the Peppermint Lounge. During our break we tried again to visit the Peppermint Lounge without any luck. The lines were so long that you had to know someone to get in. We did not know anyone around those circles. However, nothing has changed we are still happening. We are still packing in the places we perform at. Everything was going normally except for this one club the Peppermint Lounge, which seemed to exist on its own.

Joey told me that Evie is about to have their baby! I didn´t know what to say, but I asked him how he felt about it, and he replied that he loved Evie. A few days later, the worse had finally happened. Joey got drafted into the Army. He was going to Vietnam. The band went into frenzy. I begged Joey not to go, but Joey had always been the all American Boy, and he said he was going, no matter what. I became very afraid for Joey and I felt sorry for his loving family. What´s going to happen to the band? Then slowly everything began to suddenly fall apart. It was a snowball rolling down hill getting bigger and bigger. With Joey's bad news, Aldo speaks out and says that he decided to go into business with his father and marry the girl Jane from the Jersey Shore. Then Joey followed by saying that he was going to marry Evie before he enters into the army. I was suddenly caught by surprise. I thought, What´s going on? Is everybody going nuts?

Joey then made a proposal to Evie, she accepted, and soon they were married. However, I was very disappointed that Joey didn´t ask me to be his best man. Instead, he asked an old long time friend, Ritchie, to be his best man. I was devastated at his decision. Joey and I were really like brothers. I was sure to be the best man at his wedding. I went to Joey´s wedding at the church very displeased, but I only attended, because I loved him and Evie. However, I protested the wedding reception by not going. Very mad, I didn´t see Joey afterward or attend his departure into the army.

The Van-Dells / Colt 45´s, broke-up! Here I was, lost in nowhere land.

"The fucking Vietnam war is changing everyone's lives! What was I to do and where was I to go?"

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The Musician... see you among the stars

The Musician...see you among the stars

Warning! Contains Explicit Material See more information below and read the disclaimer before reading the material contained herein

Dedicated to: Marie Dore & Gracie Sammartino

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Chapter 1 - Growing Up

Chapter 2 - The Block

Chapter 2 - The Block

Chapter 3 - Judy Weinstein & the garage

Chapter 3 - Judy Weinstein & the garage

Chapter 4 - Chuck and Mike to the office

Chapter 4 - Chuck and Mike to the office

Chapter 5 - The Church

Chapter 5 - The Church

Chapter 6 - The Family

Chapter 6 - The Family

Chapter 7 - Change of Events

Chapter 7 - Change of Events

Chapter 8 - Ralphy and Joey

Chapter 8 - Ralphy and Joey

Chapter 9 - The Four Corners, Long Island, New York

Chapter 9 - The Four Corners, Long Island, New York

Chapter 10 - Menora Temple

Chapter 10 - Menora Temple

Chapter 11 - Greenwich Village

Chapter 11 - Greenwich Village

Chapter 12 - My Brother's Stores

Chapter 12 - My Brother´s Stores

Chapter 13 - The Cinderella Club and Trude Heller's and the day America died

Chapter 13 - The Cinderella Club and Trude Heller's and the day America died.

Chapter 14 - The Four Tops

Chapter 14 - The Four Tops

S H O W T I M E!

Chapter 15 - Peter and Gordon

Chapter 15 - Peter and Gordon

Chapter 16 - Florida

Chapter 16 - Florida

"The fucking Vietnam war is changing everyone's lives! What was I to do and where was I to go?"

Warning! Contains Explicit Material
See more information below and read the disclaimer before reading the material contained herein