TAXMEN Memorex
Date: Sat, Aug 3, 2002, 7:01pm
To: anderman@webtv.net (Billy Anderson), tmyronb@aol.com (Myron Bryant),
mburroughs@dhrintl.net (Mike Burroughs), mclif2@bellsouth.net (Mark Clifton),
fergs1@msn.com (Roger Ferguson)
Subject: Need your help
Putting together more TAXMEN/MARK IV info for submitting to that garage band site I found.
Please send me your thoughts on these:
Best Gig:
Gig From Hell:
Last gig:
Equipment Used: (important!)
Rehearsal space:
Band vehicles: (important!)
Fashion statement: (ha!)
Thanks for your contribs.
RSM
From: Tmyronb@aol.com
Date: Sat, Aug 3, 2002, 10:16pm
Subject: Re: Need your help
To: RSMko@webtv.net
Best Gig--Had to be the fraternity parties down at Murfreesboro that your cousin? got for us. I believe his name was Roy. Lots of drinking and dirty dancin.
Gig from Hell--Probably the Battle of the Bands that we went to (and placed 2nd) but really was a political rally for some nerd called Kelley.. Remember the shamrocks and his speech??? Gaggg!!@
Last Gig-Was it Skateland? or maybe down at Sunset Park. We also reformed under Web Hayes and played at a Lipscomb Sorority party at the Airport??
Equipment- Ludwig Drums-- Farfisa organ? You always borrowed a good bass amp.
Rehearsal space--my basement, your basement.
Band Vehicles--57 Ford Fairlane 500 and a 67 Ford Galaxie 500 Ltd, You had that pink Pontiac or Olds- Mark had the GTO-Danny ??? Billy- Bad Mustang and some smaller compact (Rambler?) before that.
Fashion-Paul Revere and the Raiders outfits -Vests made by Danny Andrews uncle?
Myron
From: mclif2@bellsouth.net (mark)
Date: Sat, Aug 3, 2002, 7:43pm
To: RSMko@webtv.net (Marston Moor)
Subject: Re: Need your help
Best Gig: BATTLE OF THE BANDS, OAK VALLEY?? They were all the best to me, just happier than shit to play anywhere...!
Gig From Hell: NEVER PLAYED THERE...all of them were good
Last gig: HIGH SCHOOL ASSEMBLY?
Equipment Used: Fender Mustang, white with tortoise shell pickguard, Ampeg (model escapes me) amp, with a 15" speaker, built-in reverb and tremolo, Fuzztone distortion box (the box kind with the 1/4" jack mounted on the box and the jack cord fit in the bottom end of the unit, about a 2" cube) that plugged right into the input of the guitar...multi-colored lights (blue, red and green) compliments of Mr. Fixit (dad), plethora of speaker cabinets for sound system, EV 4 channel amp, 50W tops...I think and I can't remember the kinds of mics, but they were the big bulbous one that shocked the shit out of your lip if you got too close on slow songs....!!
Rehearsal space: Stevie's basement, Dan's basement, Billy's living room, Myron's living room, my living room, Oak Valley skating rink...
Band vehicles: 1963 powder blue Chevy station wagon w/ a white painted top (Dad's coffee wagon), 1953 Willis (car not a Jeep, looked like a Henry J) two-tone green, 1968 Oldsmobile Delta 88 (white w/ a blue vinyl top, Mom's vehicle).
Fashion statement: Paul Revere and the Raiders outfits (special), whatever was "groovy" before Haight-Ashbury hit Nashville!! Long hair, ha ha ha, that would pass high school inspection in 1967-68-69...BIG bell bottoms w/bells on the cuffs....Wide belts, etc.
Mark
From: anderman@webtv.net (Billy Anderson)
Date: Sat, Aug 3, 2002, 10:57pm (EDT-1)
To: All
Subject: Re: Need your help
ohmigod, it was those shirts (purple satin and vests) and the BATTLE OF THE BANDS at SEWART AFB (2nd place). they really stand out. and the BATTLE OF THE BANDS at SKATELANE with the FEMININE COMPLEX where our girlfriends gathered votes with their good looks and i think we won. led to hippodrome gig. i get lost right in there.
i got lost right in here.
From: Marston Moor
Date: Sun, Aug 4, 2002, 9:15am
To: Billy A
Cc: Marnie Poo, Mike, Bubba Cliffie, Fergon
Subject: Re: Need your help
I remember... hmm:
No, I DON'T remember much!
I remember, Skatelane. The big battle, (Thurs Aug 10 1967... next saturday it'll be 35 years ago to the day!!!), and gigs there before that too. We DID win (over FemComplex) and prize was that ST. JOSEPH gig (posters for both still exist). THAT night (SJ) stands out most for me. We were incredible, finally attaining the heights of many of the other combos who we'd always drooled over, watching from below. We were so full of envy & infatuation with bands like the Lemonade Charade, et al. Just staring at their equipment set-ups pre-show, then marveling when they were playing. That "swirling" sound of all the best full '60s combos! Colored lights and all.
ST JOE highlight: A Whiter Shade of Pale! Sounded just like the record. And I think we'd gotten our lights together by then. (Wasn't that a big deal? Upgraded sound equip was one thing, but it didn't take us long to determine we weren't gonna impress anyone until we got some LIGHTS! Ha! They almost became as essential as amps and P.A.! Didn't Clifton's father help us build them?) The place was packed. Kids finally idolizing US! No question, we ROCKED.
And that really may have been our last gig, or close to it. I still have letters from Mark, sadly he was gonna go off to college in Murfreesboro.
Gig from Hell: don't really remember any bad Taxmen gigs (as bad gigs go... we sure had plenty of them in the years to follow!). Heck, we were too young to be concerned with the things that can & do go wrong! Other gigs: yes, Smyrna and MTSU (cousin Roy Dallas Crowder). The punch bowls, gettin puke drunk.
Did we ever play MHS???
We musta started playing a LOT of GARAGE parties, but I have no specific flashbacks whatsoever. Blurrrrr...
Oak Valley was the best. I loved those weekends, we'd be heading down the end o' the Bend lots. What great times!
Vehicles: I haven't a clue. (I hate cars.) All I remember are Billy's Mach 1 and Mark's (later?) yellow VW. After years in the 70s with Billy-bands and vans, I don't recall a single thing about Taxmen packing equipment in dads' station wagons etc.
I played my Teisco bass, then later used my dad's red Fender Jazz bass. Correct? Yeh, Myron, that's right: I never seemed to purchase my own good bass amp; only was borrowing from others (wonder who?). Ampeg comes to mind. With the tube amp head that you'd unlatch and pull out from the top of the speaker cabinet, turn it rightside-up and latch it back in!
Other gear: yup, I do remember Cliffie's. Marn, you still have the same trap set, yes? Slingerland? What did Billy play back then? Farfisa? And only that? You never got a Vox Continental, did ya? You remember what amp the keys were going thru? And what kinda PA did we use? Several different ones, right? Those rolled & pleated Kustom cabinets!
Fashion statement: yup, the shirts and vests. And black knee boots. Did we wear them every goddam gig? lol
Songs: the obvious.
Influences: the obvious, but Rascals and Raiders were the biggies. We did EVERYTHING. Very impressive with our variety. We could do dumb blues standards, but then jump right into complex harmony pop. Can you believe there's no tapes or pics of ANY of our gigs!?!? Are you all positive you have nothing survived?
Rehearsels: again, I can't seem to visualize where. Danny's basement, once. Oak Valley indoors (rink?). Our parents' basements do NOT come to mind! Too loud!
I better go lie down now!
Wow,
rsteven
From: Myron
Stevie, You have tweeked some dead brain cells alive. We did practice in my basement at times.. sounded like we were in a cave. I recall that coffee house in Smyrna. Seems no one was there. You did borrow an Ampeg amp. Don't know who it belonged to , but I remember it well. I do still play the same drums. With critical additions.
One of the first gigs I remember was for a SPO (Sigma Phi Omega-high school fraternity) party at someones (Eric Henderson??) house in Madison. They actually paid us to play. The gig I remember as the gig from hell was not the Battle of the Bands at Skateland, but the one at the Hippodrome where, once again, that asshole turned it into a political rally.
What kind of amps did Bill and Mark have..they should remember. Did Bill have a Vox instead of a Farfisa?? All I remember is that he could reach beneath it , hit the spring reverb and we used that sound to start Born to Be Wild. It sounded exactly like a motorcycle engine running.
Billy did not have a Mach I. I did but that was after 69. Bill had a Mustang 2+2 fastback with a 390 engine. My Mach I had a 351 Cleveland engine. Marks GTO had a HP 389. You were driving that damned pink car. I remember you almost ran over me on Old Hickory Blvd. I was on my motorcycle and you were playing with yourself and looked up and were right on my tail. I had to run off in the ditch to keep you from hitting me. I looked in my rear-view mirror and you were laughing your ass off.
Murf-boro.. we got drunk - went out in the parking lot and threw a cherry bomb up in the air. It came down on top of my car and exploded.. Knocked the paint off! What idiots we could be. Its a wonder someone didn't try and catch the thing. Who really gave a shit?
Sunset Park aka Oak Valley--playing on the skating rink at night until the dew fell on my drums and was hoarse from singing.
P.A. I built a couple of columns out of speakers I found somewhere. Did we ever use them? Marks dad did do the lights as I remember. I believe we sang thru the amps most of the time. I never recall a PA amp and system. Who would have had the money to buy one??
I'm out of thoughts for the moment.
Mark are you brain dead or just out of town? No response.
What about Danny Andrews?? He should remember most everything.. He stayed sober most of the time....didn't you??
From: Billy
i remember the big silvertone amp (with 6 tens). i think i played thru that for a while. my organ wasn't vox. i think it was a LOWREY (doesn't sound right now that i've said it) combo organ and i had one of those leslie cabs (not wood) that looked like a fender amp, but not sure about that either.
i drove a blue mustang 390 gt that i bought from a kid in the bend (ronnie r. (somthin'). i think he might have been a player, too.
i ain't gonna eat out my heart anymore,
b.
THE ANDERSON ARCHIVES
From: Myron
Silvertone??? 6x10" speakers???? That was a monster then.. I remember the Leslie.. Black miniature of the B-3 version. You did play a Lowry, Lowery... whatever. I remember now.
From: dandrews1@msn.com (Dan Andrews)
Date: Sun, Aug 4, 2002, 10:42am (EDT-1)
Remember Bill Conn's Farfisa Combo Compact (now that was some keyboard). I think it melted once when he tried the old alcohol tray trick for the song Fire. Was it the big Ronnie or the little Ronnie? Not good on last names.
Dan Andrews
From: Billy
who did bill conn play with? marn, he lives out near you. he'd probably wanna participate in all this.
to be continued > > > > ?