1. How and when did you get started playing music?
I saw the Beatles land in America on our old black and white t.v. set. That's the day I knew what I wanted to do. But I was the youngest of four and mom and dad didn't have the money to help me for another couple of years...So it wasn't until around 1966 that I got my first guitar...We DID have a family piano so all of us had to learn to play....My sister played the piano for me and my two older brothers who sang...We had a good little family gospel group....
2. Did you play in any bands before making the Kanaan record?
Mom, dad and myself moved to La Marque, Texas in 1967...Dad got a job at Johnson space center as a welder...There is where I was in my very first band....So yes, I played in 3 or 4 teen groups before Kanaan that tortured the public while we tried to learn to play....
Kanaan never played a gig....I had learned to play drums by this time and was actually playing in the bass players band in Marshall, Texas and the surrounding area....By February of 1968 we had moved back to east Texas...Daingerfield, Tx.....
4. What were some musical influences/inspirations on you at the time?
I was a huge Beatles fan....But by the end of the summer of '67 I was into Jimi Hendrix, The Spencer Davis Group, The Buckinghams, Sly and The Family Stone, The Who and pretty much any group with a rebellious attitude and amps loud enough to bother the deaf!
I was a huge Beatles fan....But by the end of the summer of '67 I was into Jimi Hendrix, The Spencer Davis Group, The Buckinghams, Sly and The Family Stone, The Who and pretty much any group with a rebellious attitude and amps loud enough to bother the deaf!
5. What can you tell me about the writing of the two songs on the Kanaan 45?
I was pretty sappy over a girl and wrote Something Inside for her....If I could do it all over again, that song wouldn't have made it on to the record....I worked hard to save enough money to cut a 45....Didn't do it believing anything would come of it....I just wanted to do a record....I had a few other songs written, but nothing that I wanted to use......I almost put a 1, 4, 5 blues song on the flip side, but about 2 days before the session, I wrote Leave It and decided to use it....
I was pretty sappy over a girl and wrote Something Inside for her....If I could do it all over again, that song wouldn't have made it on to the record....I worked hard to save enough money to cut a 45....Didn't do it believing anything would come of it....I just wanted to do a record....I had a few other songs written, but nothing that I wanted to use......I almost put a 1, 4, 5 blues song on the flip side, but about 2 days before the session, I wrote Leave It and decided to use it....
6. What do you recall about the recording of those two songs?
We recorded the songs in Tyler at Robin Hood Brians studio....Robin had engineered the first 3 ZZTop albums...I didn't know that at the time....I wanted to use a fuzz pedal on the instrumental of Something Inside, but Robin talked me out of it....He had me record two guitar leads tuned slightly off from each other in a futile attempt to get a 12 string sound...What we wound up with was a recording that made all who heard it look for the nearest cliff to hurl themselves off of!!.....Then we started on Leave It....Robin really liked this song....At the end of the session he advised me to use Leave It as side A....It DID sound better than the other song, so that's what I did...
We recorded the songs in Tyler at Robin Hood Brians studio....Robin had engineered the first 3 ZZTop albums...I didn't know that at the time....I wanted to use a fuzz pedal on the instrumental of Something Inside, but Robin talked me out of it....He had me record two guitar leads tuned slightly off from each other in a futile attempt to get a 12 string sound...What we wound up with was a recording that made all who heard it look for the nearest cliff to hurl themselves off of!!.....Then we started on Leave It....Robin really liked this song....At the end of the session he advised me to use Leave It as side A....It DID sound better than the other song, so that's what I did...
7. Who were the musicians on those recordings and what did they play?
On Something Inside, I was on guitar and vocals,...On drums was Garry Bryant....On bass was Doug Fagg....Yep, that was his name!! And on piano was Leon Hass.......We did Leave It as a trio because I couldn't get the guys together but once or twice to learn Leave It, and there just wasn't a keyboard part for it...
On Something Inside, I was on guitar and vocals,...On drums was Garry Bryant....On bass was Doug Fagg....Yep, that was his name!! And on piano was Leon Hass.......We did Leave It as a trio because I couldn't get the guys together but once or twice to learn Leave It, and there just wasn't a keyboard part for it...
8. Did you have much more original material at the time? Any unreleased recordings from this period?
I only had about 15 songs written by this time....I wanted to do heavier stuff and most of the things I'd written were really kind of bubble gum pop....There's no other unreleased recordings from that period....Rehearsal tapes, yes, but anything you'd want folks to hear, no....
I had to do the leg work to promote the record...There were a few stores around east Texas that agreed to sell it.....In Marshall Texas, it was pick hit of the week on one station and hit of the week on another...It was played on the radio in Mt. Pleasant Texas, Daingerfield Texas and even on a station in Dallas....It was on several juke boxes in the area....I had a thousand copies made....Sold all but about 50 of them....They've since been sold though...
10. Did you play in any bands after Kanaan?
I'm not sure I could count how many bands I've played in over the years....But that's what I did for a living through out my youth....Traveled the country in several bands.....I even played in two different groups that toured with one of the working versions of The Drifters....I actually became a Drifter at one point too.....As far as I know, I'm the only white guy that ever became "a Drifter".....They made me wear an Afro Freedom wig! They didn't want people to know I was white so they wanted to pass me off as a mixed race member of the group!.....We got the star treatment everywhere we went...That was an exciting time.....But I got tired of the music after several months of one nighters across the country...Plus I missed actually playing...I played congas and drums in the two groups that backed The Drifters, but when I became a Drifter, I only sang and danced....So I wanted to play again and got off the road from the Drifters one week and the next week accepted a job as the drummer in another group touring the country...
I'm not sure I could count how many bands I've played in over the years....But that's what I did for a living through out my youth....Traveled the country in several bands.....I even played in two different groups that toured with one of the working versions of The Drifters....I actually became a Drifter at one point too.....As far as I know, I'm the only white guy that ever became "a Drifter".....They made me wear an Afro Freedom wig! They didn't want people to know I was white so they wanted to pass me off as a mixed race member of the group!.....We got the star treatment everywhere we went...That was an exciting time.....But I got tired of the music after several months of one nighters across the country...Plus I missed actually playing...I played congas and drums in the two groups that backed The Drifters, but when I became a Drifter, I only sang and danced....So I wanted to play again and got off the road from the Drifters one week and the next week accepted a job as the drummer in another group touring the country...
Like any musician that's made a living on the road, the stories are endless...In the 80's I went to California with a group that had a developmental deal with Columbia Records, but it fell through...But I stayed in California and wound up meeting and playing with some really interesting people....I played with former members of Blue Cheer, Big Brother and The Holding Company, Buddy Miles, Norman Greenbaum and even a drummer for the Pointer Sisters....Before we left for California Lita Ford even did a session with us in Dallas......
I had an engineer who recorded the live Peter Frampton album and the Aloha special for Elvis interested in me in California....But he got sick and has since died....So like so many other players, I came close but went home empty handed so to speak....In '93 I signed a management contract with Bohdi Entertainment Group in Los Angeles...They wanted to promote me as a country singer....I hated every second of it but thought what the heck...I've tried everything else....A producer named Micky Buckins who worked at Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals Alabama became interested in me....I flew out and recorded 4 songs of his choosing at Muscle Shoals.....I had done a cable t.v. show in L.A. and several newspaper interviews prior to flying out....They seemed to like everything but my age....In my early 30's I was already too old....So that didn't go anywhere either....But it was a pretty cool thing to record in that studio....Standing on the spot where Wilson Pickett recorded "Funky Funky Broadway" was a real kick for me.....
In '06 I got a call from a guy in Pennsylvania who had found my record at a record show in Baltimore...Wanted to buy copies if I had them....Last year a guy in California had come across it and wanted to put it on a compilation album in L.A.....They did....It's the lead off track on an album called "Brown Acid, The Fourth Trip"......Then I heard from a guy in London England, another guy in Paris France, someone in Japan, a guy in Russia of all places and another guy in Athens Greece!
I have no idea how any of them heard this record or why they wanted it....But this silly little 45 has made it's way around the world pretty much....I have a few copies left that I'm hangin' on to.....And like any musician that's toured the country, the stories go on and on.....From having supper with Buddy Miles in Jackson, Miss. to gettin' drunk with King Crimson in Ft. Wayne Indiana.....It was a grueling ride at times but I have some pretty good memories to hang on to as I head into my twilight years....I'll leave it at that....
Thank you so much for your time David Waldon! Photos and interview courtesy of David.
Jason - this is sooo cool .... pre-Elevators !!! What a find :)
ReplyDeleteI too found a couple copies of this one, I talked to one of the band members that now plays at his church in Plano
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