The only comment I ever got from my parents was from my father, who'd read something in the newspaper about "Itchycoo Park", a 45 I was playing at that time. He didnt like the "You can miss out school - Won't that be cool Why go to learn the words of fools?" which was met with "Awwe Dad, I really dont even listen to the words". With some truth to it.
What I did listen to and was very taken by, was the phase shifter effect over "I feel inclined to blow my mind Get hung up, feed the ducks with a bun They all come out to groove about Be nice and have fun in the sun"
Swish-wish! ;')
Amazing you got to see Tommy Bolin play the night before he died. Did he not replace Ritchie Blackmore in Deep? I liked his playing on the Billy Cobham record. Jan Hammer tried to help him out, but you could hear despite Jan's playing assistance that he wasnt taking his music seriously - maybe it was the drugs, dunno.
Is Craig Anderton still around?
What I did listen to and was very taken by, was the phase shifter effect over "I feel inclined to blow my mind Get hung up, feed the ducks with a bun They all come out to groove about Be nice and have fun in the sun"
Swish-wish! ;')
Amazing you got to see Tommy Bolin play the night before he died. Did he not replace Ritchie Blackmore in Deep? I liked his playing on the Billy Cobham record. Jan Hammer tried to help him out, but you could hear despite Jan's playing assistance that he wasnt taking his music seriously - maybe it was the drugs, dunno.
Is Craig Anderton still around?
I had the LP record by the Small Faces that Itchycoo Park was on, but it disappeared along with about half of my records in the early 70's.
I hung around a 3rd rate recording studio in the early 70's and was shown how to do that by sticking your finger on the reel of a large single track Ampex reel to reel tape recorder. I could not make it happen on my 7 inch Sony at home.
Deep Purple went through several line-up changes in the 70's, the order of who and when I can no longer remember.
Both Anderton and PAIA are still around, though not connected any more.
PAIA went through several phases from synthesizers to guitar effects. I think they do both now, though I have not really looked at their stuff since the 80's. I still see them mentioned online and in some of the electronic music press.
Anderton started Electronic Musician magazine quite some time ago. I still have a digital subscription. Anderton is no longer the editor, but his name does still show up on some articles. He now writes downloadable books and digital music "soft products" and sells them from his web site.
Craig Anderton Products and Books Digital Storefront
My father freaked out when he heard Black Sabbath. He cut the plug off the amplifier I'd built and almost smashed it with a hammer. He was really worried that I was a devil worshiper. He believed in all that devil stuff.
My mother found an Edgar Winter album and had a hissy fit over the cover. "Is that a man or a woman? Are you a homosexual Eddie?" That's really how they thought. I think they were ready to take me to an exorcist and I'm not exaggerating. Even at 14 years old I realized that my parents were profoundly superstitious and consumed with irrational fear. In fact, their zeal pushed me away from religion forever. It is just insane.
There's some irony too. They thought I was a real bad kid, but I wasn't. I never got in trouble, excelled academically in college, and was very successful at a young age. By the time I was 19 I was already making more money than my father, and I was still in college.
All the while, they were ignoring my younger brother. By the time he was 14 he was doing every drug he could get his hands on. At 15 he was stealing cars and robbing freight trains. When I went away to college he got worse. He used to have parties in the basement with kegs of beer and lots of weed. He didn't care if my parents could smell it and just told them f--- you when they tried to stop the party. At 18 he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. He was a horrible, evil person that caused my parents (and me too) untold anguish. After my parents were dead I became the target of his evil. He literally called my phone 100+ times a day. He talked and talked and talked and never shut up. He never had anything to say. He tried to rape my girlfriend's friend and I wouldn't have him in my house after that. His "reason" was "because she was nice to me." Every time he screwed me over and I told him to f--- off he'd whine and say "but I'm your brother." He died a manchild a year ago at 58 and it was both a tragedy and a tremendous relief.
In my case it was the large DIY modular music synthesizer that met the hammer at the hands of my father.
From early childhood we never got along or could even speak to each other for more than a few seconds before he flew into a rage. He was convinced that I was up to something bad in almost everything I did, especially when I always had more money than my $1.05 / Hr part time job (age 15) should have provided.
At the time I never understood why he would just stare at me without saying a word, then explode into an often violent rage at me, not my other two brothers. We now know this as PTSD from WWII. He was a bomber pilot, shot down twice, and his parents were notified that he was "missing in action, presumed dead" once. He did make it perfectly clear that none of his kids were going into the service, or he would "kill them himself before a g**k could."
I wasn't exactly a model kid, and really sucked in school, but we now call this problem ADHD. In the late 1950's it was "deviant behavior."
My first attempt at a local community college lasted less than two years. I was essentially pushed out by being placed on academic probation due to a GPA below 1.5 with one term to bring it up to 2.0. That would require 4 classes with an "A" in each.....not happening at the time.
Some of my friends and I had a successful gig dumpster diving behind the local electronics importers warehouses (most notably Pearce Simpson and Julliette) where would collect boxes full of broken stuff, make a few good ones out of all the junk, then sell them at high school or the local flea market. $50 to $100 a week in the late 60's wasn't bad for dealing in "fresh garbage."
After leaving the $1.05 TV repair job I spent a couple years as a service tech at an Olson's Electronics store, then at age 20 I walked into a Motorola plant and got a job as an assembly line tech. 41 years and two college degrees later I retired as a Principal Staff Research Engineer.
In my late teens I did not feel welcome at home, and wasn't there whenever possible. Domestic relations had deteriorated to the point where I got out of the house for the final time with what I could stuff into my car. I did not communicate with my family for nearly 2 years.
Fortunately my father retired early and quit his daily drinking reversing his ailing health. Domestic relations were patched up before it was too late.
Some of the things that I never understood became clear. These details were filled in by one of my brothers. Myself or the youngest brother never knew about his WWII stuff. He kept that locked deep inside him, only to be released as rage. The big music synthesizer made sounds that reminded him of being shot out of the sky and crashing in an airplane. It had to die before it got him. My first new car was a 1979 Plymouth Champ. I drove 4 hours to meet the family for Thanksgiving, only to be greeted by him screaming and throwing rocks at me and my new car, so I left and drove back home, resulting in another 6 months of no contact.
My brother would later explain that despite no outward evidence my father knew that car was a Mitsubishi in disguise, the same company that made the airplane that shot him out of the sky. I made sure he never saw the Mitsubishi again....or the Eagle Summit (Mitsubishi Mirage) we got 10 years later.
It's hard to understand the demons that haunt another person's soul. I only wish my father could have communicated some of these issues to me, but apparently he could only discuss them after a lot of drinking, and I did not drink.
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My father was in Europe from 1939 to 1945. He was drafted right out of high school. Like your father, he was heavily committed to his sons never serving in the armed forces. I think he would have sent me to Canada if he had to.
But my brother, the "good" son, enlisted in the Marines. He said he was going to be a "five star general." He literally said "five star general" at least 200 times a day. There's a lot of irony here because he never even made his bed, even as an adult. He was a filthy slob with a revolting odor that you could smell 25 feet away. Some Marine! He was given a general discharge after a week of boot camp.
I felt that way since I was ten. I moved out on my 18th birthday. My father was a raging alcoholic. I used to call him out as a hypocrite when he got on my case for smoking pot. He was completely blind to what alcohol had done to him. He quit beating me when I was around 15 or so and started fighting back. I knocked him out cold and that was the end of his beatings. Looking back I think he was a little crazy. It's no wonder my brother turned out the way he did. He was a whole lot like my dad.
This is why I hate religion so much. All I see is over the top hypocrisy.
I can't recall what I had done wrong as a teenager that prompted my father to drag the portable record player out from under my bed and smash it to bits with his bare hands!
However, I am eternally grateful for his actions as they were to set me off down the diy audio path - starting with the construction of a replacement record playing system - superior in performance to the ill-fated portable record player, I may add!
I never had any records to play until I could buy them myself, but I had a radio and a tape recorder both rescues from the trash.
Mostly at the insistence of my mother the three brothers were subjected to lessons of all sorts, dance lessons, music lessons, even "manners" lessons. None of that stuck beyond the first few sessions except for music lessons. My youngest brother and I went to guitar lessons, for a while, and I stuck with it for 7 years. Unfortunately my father didn't like the sound, so the compromise was that I got an electric guitar but no amp. I could hear it in my bedroom, but nobody else could.
My father had an old Magnavox mono HiFi console record player. He went out one day and bought a new Silvertone stereo console, and at my insistence my parents reluctantly agreed to give me the old Maggie.
Somewhere around age 7 or 8 I figured out how to cut a guitar cord in half and tape the wires to the wires in the tone arm of the Maggie where the cartridge used to be. My first DIY guitar amp was born. My mom figured out what happened rather quick, and made sure that I never turned it on when dad was home. It was at least a year before he found out about it, and it lived on for a year or two longer until some DIY experiments led to the magic smoke escaping. By then I was making real DIY guitar amps from old TV sets.
Mostly at the insistence of my mother the three brothers were subjected to lessons of all sorts, dance lessons, music lessons, even "manners" lessons. None of that stuck beyond the first few sessions except for music lessons. My youngest brother and I went to guitar lessons, for a while, and I stuck with it for 7 years. Unfortunately my father didn't like the sound, so the compromise was that I got an electric guitar but no amp. I could hear it in my bedroom, but nobody else could.
My father had an old Magnavox mono HiFi console record player. He went out one day and bought a new Silvertone stereo console, and at my insistence my parents reluctantly agreed to give me the old Maggie.
Somewhere around age 7 or 8 I figured out how to cut a guitar cord in half and tape the wires to the wires in the tone arm of the Maggie where the cartridge used to be. My first DIY guitar amp was born. My mom figured out what happened rather quick, and made sure that I never turned it on when dad was home. It was at least a year before he found out about it, and it lived on for a year or two longer until some DIY experiments led to the magic smoke escaping. By then I was making real DIY guitar amps from old TV sets.
Music and the old Fisher console stereo saved me. Thanks to my older sister, I was introduced to the Rolling Stones, Grand Funk, Edgar Winter, country and western music, Motown, and my mother loved The Mama's and The Papa's and the music from Jesus Christ Superstar. Mom never let any of us go to live rock and roll concerts, she said she knew what kind of shenanigan's went on at those events.
I thought I would be drafted into the military when I began high school in 1972. The draft ended the next year, but my main goal was to get out of my parent's house. There were five other mouths to feed after my mouth enlisted in the USMC. I made up for all those missed rock and roll concerts in Okinawa.
My pops was a Korean War veteran, his dad was a WWII veteran. They both learned how to drink and smoke cigarettes. Last thing my pops told me was not to drink and not to smoke. I told him I didn't smoke.
Thinking back, that old Fisher console was a great stereo system. It survived my sister stacks of records, playing loud everyday in summers while our parents were at work.
I'm going to go and play some of those old records right now. Hope you all have a great weekend, filled with music and good cheer.
I thought I would be drafted into the military when I began high school in 1972. The draft ended the next year, but my main goal was to get out of my parent's house. There were five other mouths to feed after my mouth enlisted in the USMC. I made up for all those missed rock and roll concerts in Okinawa.
My pops was a Korean War veteran, his dad was a WWII veteran. They both learned how to drink and smoke cigarettes. Last thing my pops told me was not to drink and not to smoke. I told him I didn't smoke.
Thinking back, that old Fisher console was a great stereo system. It survived my sister stacks of records, playing loud everyday in summers while our parents were at work.
I'm going to go and play some of those old records right now. Hope you all have a great weekend, filled with music and good cheer.
All I can say is Wow. With parents / siblings like that, you dont need a Zen Master in the house, do you? Always thought being an only was a terrible thing; how I so wanted to move in with the Esch's two doors down; the big 5 kid family.
Aside from never having developed a solid foundation for how to relate to others (aka siblings), I suppose I didnt know how lucky I had it! No overt stuff going on where I grew up. To his credit, my father was beaten as a child and he never carried on that particular tradition into his own behaviors with me.
He never knew what else to do, just not that. So the whole quadrant of "an effective discipline" was simply missing from his being a father. You can guess what did carry over into the next generation...
I once bought him John Bradshaw's "On the Family". Word had it he read the intro, then put it down. His wife told me she then read it cover to cover. Both now deceased in the last couple years. At least they missed out on the pandemic.
Overall, I too had a "fractured" relationship with my father. I remember how my college roomate from L.I. told me his dad took him to all the ball games, cheered him on - then did the same for both his little brothers. I threw a football with my dad - once - because he wanted to. Looking through the stills I recovered from his estate, it seems we had a close relationship as a little kid, but not so much by my teens...
Aside from never having developed a solid foundation for how to relate to others (aka siblings), I suppose I didnt know how lucky I had it! No overt stuff going on where I grew up. To his credit, my father was beaten as a child and he never carried on that particular tradition into his own behaviors with me.
He never knew what else to do, just not that. So the whole quadrant of "an effective discipline" was simply missing from his being a father. You can guess what did carry over into the next generation...
I once bought him John Bradshaw's "On the Family". Word had it he read the intro, then put it down. His wife told me she then read it cover to cover. Both now deceased in the last couple years. At least they missed out on the pandemic.
Overall, I too had a "fractured" relationship with my father. I remember how my college roomate from L.I. told me his dad took him to all the ball games, cheered him on - then did the same for both his little brothers. I threw a football with my dad - once - because he wanted to. Looking through the stills I recovered from his estate, it seems we had a close relationship as a little kid, but not so much by my teens...
We had a 1950s era RCA "high fidelity" record player. 10 watt Williamson amplifier, 8" two way, I guess aperiodic enclosure. It was loud with lots of boomy bass. Rock sounded great on it!
I fixed it a couple of times, including replacing the turntable. (Yes I was the repair man in the house by the time I was 12.) I added a switch and jack so you could run a tuner through it. My dad thought I was a wizard.
My mom bought us boys a modern all in one transistorized stereo for the basement. It sounded so awful. We called it the Distortomax. I was already building a tube stereo when she bought it. The Distortomax fell out of favor fast.
I fixed it a couple of times, including replacing the turntable. (Yes I was the repair man in the house by the time I was 12.) I added a switch and jack so you could run a tuner through it. My dad thought I was a wizard.
My mom bought us boys a modern all in one transistorized stereo for the basement. It sounded so awful. We called it the Distortomax. I was already building a tube stereo when she bought it. The Distortomax fell out of favor fast.
There was a kid my age that lived a few houses away. I went over there a lot and spent more time with his father than my own. He was a woodworker and had a shop in the back yard. One day he asked me if I would help him load up some scraps and other junk into his car and take it to the trash dump......This was the beginning of many "shopping days."
Here were hundreds of discarded TV sets, radios and old HiFi consoles. Tubes by the thousands, all for FREE! Information was hard to get in those days (early 60's) but parts were easy. The next time we went we brought some tools and a couple shopping bags.
Another friend had an older brother that was a ham radio guy. Together the three of us took apart my friend's Fender Champ guitar amp and traced it's schematic. OK, I had the information (schematic) the parts, and an old Wen soldering gun I had picked up somewhere. The seeds of Tubelab had been planted. I did not really know what I was doing, but I had an ever growing collection of tubes, transformers and other parts, and a lifetime to try every possible way to connect them together.
I screwed the tube sockets and a couple transformers that were identified by the ham radio brother as "usable" to a pine board and set out to build myself a guitar amp. It took a while, but I finally made something that worked, and within a year I had a whole room full of home made amps. Some were made on pine boards, others used old radio chassis.
Long before dumpster diving I would ride my bicycle along the main 4 lane road to hit all the trash dumpsters behind the shops. I could collect enough glass bottles to take into the 7-11 store and return for the deposit. There were two TV repair shops on this trip, each good for a few tubes and other parts. Almost 10 years later my first job would be working in one of them. This provided me enough cash for the latest issue of one of the 3 electronics magazines for sale in the drug store at the east end of my journey.
Those really were the "good old days" of DIY. Anyone else remember Fahnestock clips? I successfully soldered one to each pin of some octal sockets, and my first breadboard was made.
Note, I have a vague memory of these event, but my mother recalled them quite well. She said that my strong interest in electricity began at age 4 or 5 when the paper clip met the wall outlet. I was fascinated by the big sparks and little bouncing balls of glowing metal. Likewise, the hacksaw blade on the car battery. We won't talk about kite string, aluminum foil and power lines......
Here were hundreds of discarded TV sets, radios and old HiFi consoles. Tubes by the thousands, all for FREE! Information was hard to get in those days (early 60's) but parts were easy. The next time we went we brought some tools and a couple shopping bags.
Another friend had an older brother that was a ham radio guy. Together the three of us took apart my friend's Fender Champ guitar amp and traced it's schematic. OK, I had the information (schematic) the parts, and an old Wen soldering gun I had picked up somewhere. The seeds of Tubelab had been planted. I did not really know what I was doing, but I had an ever growing collection of tubes, transformers and other parts, and a lifetime to try every possible way to connect them together.
I screwed the tube sockets and a couple transformers that were identified by the ham radio brother as "usable" to a pine board and set out to build myself a guitar amp. It took a while, but I finally made something that worked, and within a year I had a whole room full of home made amps. Some were made on pine boards, others used old radio chassis.
Long before dumpster diving I would ride my bicycle along the main 4 lane road to hit all the trash dumpsters behind the shops. I could collect enough glass bottles to take into the 7-11 store and return for the deposit. There were two TV repair shops on this trip, each good for a few tubes and other parts. Almost 10 years later my first job would be working in one of them. This provided me enough cash for the latest issue of one of the 3 electronics magazines for sale in the drug store at the east end of my journey.
Those really were the "good old days" of DIY. Anyone else remember Fahnestock clips? I successfully soldered one to each pin of some octal sockets, and my first breadboard was made.
Note, I have a vague memory of these event, but my mother recalled them quite well. She said that my strong interest in electricity began at age 4 or 5 when the paper clip met the wall outlet. I was fascinated by the big sparks and little bouncing balls of glowing metal. Likewise, the hacksaw blade on the car battery. We won't talk about kite string, aluminum foil and power lines......
Anyone else remember Fahnestock clips?
Sure I remember them from old popular and radio electronics magazines.
Thanks for sharing your stories guys. Imagine my parents letting me fiddle around in the back of the tube TV set not having a clue what was going on but that started my interests in electronics and making a career out of it.
I am glad my Dad was not violent with us kids, we were lucky he was into sports, coached and drove the neighborhood kids to games and practices. Lots of ww2 stories to share with us, some good many bad, but that is what those young kids where brain washed into believing at the time. Dad said it was a government con job they did on them. Forgot to mention you might get your head blown off. Dad was in the navy, put on a corvette for North Atlantic convoy duty, they had one confirmed u boat kill, dad said he detected the ping on the asdec? Pre sonar, used a large quartz crystal, I’d have research that for more info
Once again we get off topic, I am not sure if there is a resurgence in diy audio, maybe slightly with covid19, since everyone is stuck at home looking for something to do but generally I think it is dwindling because the cell phone gen are more into games and social media crap imo.
Sure I remember them from old popular and radio electronics magazines.
Thanks for sharing your stories guys. Imagine my parents letting me fiddle around in the back of the tube TV set not having a clue what was going on but that started my interests in electronics and making a career out of it.
I am glad my Dad was not violent with us kids, we were lucky he was into sports, coached and drove the neighborhood kids to games and practices. Lots of ww2 stories to share with us, some good many bad, but that is what those young kids where brain washed into believing at the time. Dad said it was a government con job they did on them. Forgot to mention you might get your head blown off. Dad was in the navy, put on a corvette for North Atlantic convoy duty, they had one confirmed u boat kill, dad said he detected the ping on the asdec? Pre sonar, used a large quartz crystal, I’d have research that for more info
Once again we get off topic, I am not sure if there is a resurgence in diy audio, maybe slightly with covid19, since everyone is stuck at home looking for something to do but generally I think it is dwindling because the cell phone gen are more into games and social media crap imo.
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This just reminded me of this : Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio - Full Performance (Live on KEXP)
And of course this: Booker T. Jones: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
Love it! The sound of the organs is so musical. It always brings me way back.
There's a show I stream that's all Hammond B3 organ music. This is the kind of stuff they play.
There's a show I stream that's all Hammond B3 organ music. This is the kind of stuff they play.
I made a "test CD" with Hammond music played by the late, great, Lenny Dee.
"Sweethearts On Parade" album.
"Sweethearts On Parade" album.
00940, that was ace!
Booker T. Jones: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert - YouTube
So stripped down! Hammond organ. Stuff I love! 😀
I went to work one day and asked my colleague how he was doin'. Usual he said. Just Back at the Chicken Shack.
Jimmy Smith - Back at the Chicken Shack - YouTube
Thanks for reminding me. 😎
Booker T. Jones: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert - YouTube
So stripped down! Hammond organ. Stuff I love! 😀
I went to work one day and asked my colleague how he was doin'. Usual he said. Just Back at the Chicken Shack.
Jimmy Smith - Back at the Chicken Shack - YouTube
Thanks for reminding me. 😎
Am I the only one who remembers this CD.
Abbey Road (the Beatles) lived in the 8 track player for most of my senior year of high school. Booker T and the MG's did a cover of the album shortly after it came out. I bought the record when I first heard a song from it on the radio.
Trivia:
Booker T ....the MG's refers to the Memphis Group. McLemore Avenue is the road in Memphis where Stax Records had a recording studio....hence Booker T also covered the cover of Abbey Road.
Once the MG's disbanded two of the players Dunn and Cropper would up forming the "Blues Brothers" with Belushi and company.
Booker T's mom tried to get him to learn the piano, but once he saw the Hammond B-3 in the teacher's room he was hooked. I guess he was a good student.
Abbey Road (the Beatles) lived in the 8 track player for most of my senior year of high school. Booker T and the MG's did a cover of the album shortly after it came out. I bought the record when I first heard a song from it on the radio.
Trivia:
Booker T ....the MG's refers to the Memphis Group. McLemore Avenue is the road in Memphis where Stax Records had a recording studio....hence Booker T also covered the cover of Abbey Road.
Once the MG's disbanded two of the players Dunn and Cropper would up forming the "Blues Brothers" with Belushi and company.
Booker T's mom tried to get him to learn the piano, but once he saw the Hammond B-3 in the teacher's room he was hooked. I guess he was a good student.
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