Way, way, way back at the beginning of the 70's (side note: I was in my 20's in the 70's and now I'm in my 70's in the 20's!) I started my first band, The Bonkeenies of America. The name has an origin, as all names do, but that's not what this is about. My intention for the band was to be a dime-store version of The Mothers of Invention. Like the Mothers, we would be a revolving cast of wacky personalities performing funny but pointed songs about culture, politics, religion and sex. The "dime store" aspect was there would be none the musical sophistication and skills on display in Frank's band. If I'd been a little older and more experienced the idea could have worked (in fact, years later I would revive it for a couple of my albums and one of my more successful musical bands) but owing to, among many other things, a lack of money, equipment, a place to practice, decent organizational skills and a deep enough pool of musicians willing to follow me down the bumpy road, it was doomed to fail. Additionally, and maybe most importantly, I hadn't written any songs for my dime-store Mothers to play. I had themes, ideas and even some lyrics but since I didn't play, or even own, an instrument and lacked the ability to express my ideas actual musicians, the whole thing was a non-starter.
The Bonkeenies, May 1974: (l-r) Olga, Greg, Sparky, Arlene, Rick, Jeff
In the middle of the decade, after a period of equipment acquisition, space locating, musician recruiting, learning to play and how to put a song together, the Bonkeenies emerged, now as a more standard rock band, playing the songs I was coming up with. While the music had much more to do with early British Invasion-era guitar pop and good ol' 50's American rock 'n' roll than anything Zappa, the lyrics tended to be a bit more quirky and fun (because, after all "quirky and fun" is how I was back then in all my quirky funness). The style I developed with that batch of (several dozen) songs written in a burst of creativity has stayed with me - so much so that even now, some 50 years later , I'm still performing several of them with my current band, The Backorders. After lots of comings and goings and fits and starts, the band that finally coalesced back in those heady days consisted of my baby sister Olga doing most of the singing, high-school friend Jeff Busby on bass (both were part of the very first "dime-store" incarnation), Greg Reznick (Olga's boyfriend) on guitar and vocals, Rick Johnson on drums and my wife Arlene on piano and organ. I played "lead" guitar and pitched in on vocals. We were all in our 20's - young and full of energy and optimism. The band broke up after a year of smoky clubs, long drives in equipment-stuffed Volkswagen Beetles and no money but I came away with a bunch of songs, improved guitar and vocal skills and a plan: the heck with playing for disinterested barflies and very little reward, I was gonna make a record and do everything myself. I listed the best of my current songs, locked myself in a room with a 4-track and set off on the fun and crazy 4-year journey that resulted in my first album, Won Out. And the rest, as they say, is hysterectomy.
Now you know. History lesson over.
An early influence - The Chicken Harmony Quartet
More stuff: Olga and I are still walkin' around but I'm sad to say that Greg, Arlene and Jeff have all passed away. I had no idea what had become of Rick until recently when out of the blue I got a message from his younger brother who had come across some Sparky stuff online somewhere. I was happy to learn that Rick is still alive and kicking. The Bonkeenies were in a constant state of flux (wherever that is) but I consider this the classic line-up.
A rare photo of the band - at least Jeff, Me, Greg and Rick - in some dive somewhere
I hope your year is going well! Igloo until tomorrow!
We never stayed here. Looks like a nice place. This picture was used for a Backorders gig poster.
More more stuff: The Bonkeenies never made an official recording, but there's a lot of of rehearsals and gigs in living rooms, garages and dives around the Bay Area that somebody pointed a cassette recorder at. Thopse tapes are probably collecting dust in the basement. If I find any I'll post them here. Once we played a wedding reception in the afternoon and a dive in Point Richmond the same evening. Barely made gas money. Remember Eric Burdon and The Animals? Yeah, me too. Or No, me neither. I aim to please and live to give. At the end of the 60's Eric broke up the original band and put together a new, hipper group. The first Animals were cute, wore matching outfits like a certain other group that everyone wanted to be - or at least be like - and smiled a lot but the new Animals were scruffy and surly-looking. It was a sign of the times, I guess, but I've always preferred the first version of the group (the bassist "discovered", and went on to manage, a guy named Jimi Hendrix).
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Animals. Not THE Animals, but still animals |
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