Prog Fans in Our 60's

Edited by David_D - May 28 2022 at 04:59

Edited by JD - May 27 2022 at 15:54

In the fall of 78' I was traveling with a band that played covers of early Genesis, Jethro Tull, and Rush. We rented a 3 story historical type house in Media Pennsylvania and used western Pennsylvania as a springboard for gigs. We would drive back to the house after the gig, sit in front of the fireplace..and our vocalist would sing us to sleep. Living there for that winter was one of the most beautiful experiences in my life.


It was amazing how our booking agent would visit the house and hand us our schedule cards. We were constantly booked and performing for huge crowds. I experienced this...I'm now in my 60s and I find it difficult to believe that it existed.


In the early 80s I ended up in a strange world. I was a hired gun for a few popular entertainers. Organized Crime was tied in to the business. I was on the other side of the fence ( so to speak), regarding what I was playing...however bands of different genres were booked together. One week I'd be opening for Doc Severison and the next week Ian Hunter or Dixie Dregs. For a short time Steve Hackett was booked a week ahead of us . At the time he had released Cured.

Prog was still appreciated greatly by audiences that bought tickets to see and hear it in theaters. It was not the same as before..as in the early to mid 70s when Prog bands played larger places and some being stadiums.

I was in my early 20s and unaware of my surroundings to a degree. I would be sitting at a banquet table with the band and suddenly Nypsy Russell and David Brenner would come strolling in to sit down with us because they were friends with my boss. I sat across from them not saying a word. I couldn't understand them. They acted miserable and depressed. All I could think of was how they made me laugh when I was a kid. I didn't understand that people are just people regardless of fame.

After traveling the corporate level for a few months I began to have an understanding about standards, practices, and lies. I was more interested in practicing guitar or writing..trying to develop something and the nature of the lifestyle shouldn't have been tied into the business of the performing artist.

In 75' if you saw Wishbone Ash...did it really have to involve drug peddling dealers and lots of groupies to be a good Rock concert? Of course not . Have you seen ..for example..the black and white film of Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac live on YouTube? The audience are seated and they are appreciating Rock Music for what it is..not what the music industry claimed it to be.


The feeling you could easily be wacked worried a lot of musicians I knew...because they played venues directly tied in with organized crime. ..and they were concerned they might unknowingly do something wrong and anger the staff.

Racism was just horrible, totally disrespectful, and between 76 and 83 in particular it was a nightmare. When you travel in a band it means that you can be subjected to groups of people on a weekly basis that never existed in your hometown. For example..we were harassed by the KKK when we played a certain gig and our management brought in hitmen to take care of the situation. Really? You mean to tell me that this drama revolved around the color of our vocalists skin? That's ridiculous!! She was family to me . It's just too sad. I didn't expect this magnitude of Racism to exist in the music business.


The higher the level..the higher degree of racism. I traveled with the most impeccable musicians on earth..who just happened to have a different color of skin and they were treated unfair and given attitudes that they were less human than the white human. That was disgraceful and I don't appreciate my friends being violently attacked because of it. I made a mistake by getting into this side of the music business.

moshkito wrote: Jacob Schoolcraft wrote: ... Sex, Drugs, and Rock n' Roll are not good combinations. Hi, What I think is the bad part, is NOT the Sex, the Drugs, or the Rock n' Roll at all ... my thoughts tend towards the abuse and the incredible amount of playing locations and time in between gigs that do not allow for "normal" to happen. It is specially worse, in America where the distances are huge, as compared to Europe where you will be in a different country but you won't have 45 more dates to play in 55 days, or 60 days, which is insane, inhumane and bad for anyone. The American idea that these bands have to score more than they are worth is an issue for me ... and you end up with idiots doing stage poses and visuals that are stupid and very immature, which MTV made it seem like it was sexy for all of us, instead of boring ... and nowadays, half the women, look like mannequins instead of being the women they are! I think the bad part of it all is the idea that a record company or something has to bring this band through the West Coast and play 14 gigs between San Diego and Seattle, and half of them are like the Gaviota Rest Stop with all its wonderful smells ... and some smoke coming out of the stalls! And you then get back on 101 and continue your journey to nowhereville! Yeah, I guess that a little dope would be OK, then! Even a nice toke from some young girl from somewhere ... while you are almost out of it!

That's really interesting! Regarding the sexual aspect of the road I always remembered that line in Spendor In The Grass where the father says to the son..."Well son..what you need is a different kind of woman"

This attitude was reinforced into society with vial and destructive damage to people's lives that believed in romanticism and Devotion to one person. A person who was faithful and witnessed their spouse under the sexual predators radar 6 nights a week in the music business.

In the music business it's just too vast. I knew many husband and wife teams in bands who literally had to fight off groupies until the road crew intercepted to escorting them out. For 40 some years I witnessed this on the regular circuit and the corporate. It was such ridiculous drama. When I turned away from the music business I noticed this kind of human behavior only occasionally.


The music business for me ...was a bunch of people trying to brainwash me . It was a constant stroke of the ego. Agents, managers, people on the corporate staff always telling you how great you are. I was 18 years old. I knew I wasn't that great. I was okay...but wth is going on here?

Then there were people all the hell around me giving me gifts. Gifts I didn't deserve . I was raised differently or thought differently. To me marriage was a promise you made to a girl that you loved and would never cheat on her. Never..and you loved her so you wouldn't..but you had groupies around you on the road who were trying to lure you into breaking that promise.


The gifts were a device to put you in "La-La Land" I was given a guitar, a car, new clothes, sometimes wads of cash and this came directly from managers and others on the staff. You were often propositioned for sex by the beautiful model types of the corporation. I suppose it was up to you if you felt comfortable cheating on your wife one night. This is all garbage you deal with when your a teenager on the road with a Rock band. The fact that you could typically be naive is what they prey on. This is all drama you have to deal with when you travel in a band. After a while it makes you sick .

Between 1976 and 1979 I played mainly in Rock Clubs. I ended up joining a band that was backed by an organization. On the East Coast of the U.S...the youth worshipped Rock Music. Everywhere I traveled they were generally fanatical. I was still a teenager and I joined the Circus not realizing the magnitude of sexual predators.

During this particular point in time Rock Music was the most important thing to the youth. Disco had been popular for a few years...but there was this attitude of Rock fans that Disco was trying to overthrow Rock. I began to see people dressed in Disco clothes fighting with Rockers at the gigs. It then escalated to the Disco people being unwanted in the Rock Clubs. In some situations I watched kids being handcuffed. The violence was brutal between the Disco crowds and the Rock crowds. This went on 6 nights a week...at our gigs in the tri state area...and I witnessed it in upstate New York, New England, and parts of North America. The anger between the two crowds took to the streets ...outside the venue where I'd be playing...quite often. It doesn't seem to be mentioned on the internet, but it was real as such I lived through it. That's why when someone connects Disco to the 70s as a good source or happy time I have to hold back my laughter.


At age 18 I disliked the way these people working on the staff would stroke your ego. It was sick. Beautiful young models fixing your hair ...putting make up on your face and treating you like a God was such a phony situation that my bandmates fell for.

It doesn't make you better than anyone else on the street, but they pressured the band to believe that it did. One series of bookings consistent of being cooped up on a bus , traveling far distances and never going home.

There were groupies everywhere . They always preyed on the guys in the band when they were at their most vulnerable. They were like sexual predators. They didn't ride the bus. They followed us up and down the east coast. It was weird.


None of the aforementioned has anything to do with being a decent musician playing in a band. You are there to perform for the audience and hope to please them in some way. Drug dealers and groupies ...a business on its own that was tied into the Music Business. It had little to do with being a good musician. It was toxic.


When you are about 3 months into traveling you start becoming a little fuzzy. You start waking up and not knowing what state you're in or where you are playing. It's perfectly natural and it's called "Roadkill"   The mistake musicians make is taking drugs or drinking while traveling the road. It typically escalates drastically when the road travel doesn't stop and they're needing more drugs. Then we have the arrival of nightmares. Musicians having nervous breakdowns on the road and having to be restrained and taken to a hospital. Sex, Drugs, and Rock n' Roll are not good combinations.

My first albums were Tommy, the White Album, and Monster.

Jacob Schoolcraft wrote: ... I had some very negative experiences or tragic ... but the music business was so much better in the 70s. You had chances ... opportunities to produce artistic Rock music and be placed on the national circuit through promoters.

Music was escapism for me in my youth. I wanted to be diverse enough on guitar to be accepted by professional road bands by age 18. I wanted to leave Vineland N.J. because it was infested with cults and a high pressured drug culture along with authorities in a rage to bust every kid they possibly could for Marijuana beginning with the Nixon drug war campaign. That changed everything.


I remember being called into the office at school and being interrogated. Many kids who didn't take drugs were interrogated. It was ridiculous. In the office I was surrounded by a principal, a security guard, a counselor, and a clergyman. It was brought to my attention that I had dark circles under my eyes. Of course it couldn't have been because I had the worst sinus condition in the high school. No it couldn't have been that.


No...it had to be all about their drug war. I was 15 years old and really pissed off by these people. Especially because I had to suffer with this condition not them...and they're accusing me of taking illegal drugs.



Then they tried to steer me in the clergyman's direction and suggest that I substitute my drug habit with religion. I said: "You do teach Science here in the school so why are you telling me to believe in fables? The clergyman said: The direction you're going in is evil . Drugs and Rock Music are from Satan.

I said: So I should believe in a fable just because you say so? That's delusional. First you're trying to get me off drugs and now you're trying to convince me of something that has no scientific evidence? Why would it be dangerous not to believe? That's not dangerous...that's called reasoning.

They suspended me so on my way out I said.."Look..it's not my problem that your school is loaded with drug addicts and your town is infested with cults"

"Don't take it out on me because you can't control your town " So they suspended me for my disrespectful remarks. In the end...this was the reason why I hated the music business. Drugs and sex were tied into the business and were very controlling.
All for a cause to gain selfish power. That's why I turned away years ago and remain a recluse. ...

Jacob Schoolcraft wrote: Theory is important to the composer because it's a method of mapping everything out that's being stored up in their noodle which can result in madness if you don't write it down... ... The band leader would say..." Harry doesn't know how to read a note of music ... yet he is playing it exactly the way I want it to be played and you are not!! " "Why would that be?" ...