Modern Vespa

I surmise from previous posts that JBlacklund and many of you are accomplished musicans and may even play profesionally today. Somewhere here there is a connection between playing an instrument and riding scooters.

I was in a "Garage Band" (formed and practised in your parents garage) when I was in High School. We played the local High School Dance Sockhop circuit.
For you young folks and across the ocean, Dances were held on weekends at the local High School on the basketball courts. To keep from damaging the wood floors of the basketball court, they made you take of your shoes and dance in your socks. Thus "A Sockhop Dance".

Also, back in the day, guys would have flat metal cleats on their shoes to make a cool noise when you walked and slow down the wearing away of the sole of the shoe.

I would be interested to know how many of you started in a garage band. At a High School near by in Edina MN my group played with another band. It was called the "battle of the bands" because the crowd would pick out the best band. When we won, the group did not have a name - so we jokingly called ourselves "Joe Banana and the Bunch". The name stuck "The Bunch".

Bob Copeland
All cover songs, Buddy Holly, Beatles and the Rolling Stones.

Gosh, Bob, think of what you started! Little Bobby Zimmerman came out of Duluth, the Artist Formerly Known as Prince, MPLS. That's a lot of building on your successes.

BTW, you really rocked those white pants!

Oooops! My bad!

Never mind...

I might be considered a fair guitar player...IF one confines their field of judgement to "folky fingerpicking' that can be used to accompany John Prine and Bob Dylan covers, for two examples.

I couldn't play a single-note lead run if my life depended on it, and haven't played using a flat pick for so long that I've forgotten what one looks like.

I'd have to run around the house and count them, but think that I must own about twenty guitars, only five of them are ever played though, and two of those seldom emit a note.

I do recall a short garage band experience in my high school days, though the three of us never made it out of the one members mom's basement, and the only song I can remember practicing was 'Gloria', you know, Chords: E, D, A..."Gimme a 'G'...'L'...'O'..R,R,R,I, A......G'L'O'R'I'A'.......G-LOOOOOO-REE-AHH".

I must still 'have it' though, on the rare occasion that I play at a local retirement residence, the preponderance of widows in my largely captive audience will toss their Depends and room keys onto my little corner 'stage'.

Give em a John Denver song and they're yours, if you get my drift.

As for the scooter/musician connection, I just don't know, but my first ever powered two-wheeler experience was on the back of a Cushman Eagle, not a motorcycle.

A little 'folky' 12 string....thing...

Prince came out of Minneapolis, "little Bobby Zimmerman" from Duluth/Hibbing and later morphed into 'Big Bobby Dylan'.

Both native Minnesotans though.

Two among our little band are scooter riders. I'd like to think we're competent, but we harbor no illusion that anyone other than the singer is the main talent.

Yes,, Bob Dylan and Prince were big Minnesota contributions to the musical world. Also, kind of forgotten, was the Trashmen with their hit "The Bird is the word".

Small world, Ron Mogelson, the guy I hired at Allstate Insurance and started the independent agency I currently work at wife went to her high school prom with Bob Zimmerman (later Bob Dylan). I went down to the Scholar (coffee shop in Minneapolis) to listen to Bob Dylan sing before he left for New York.

No judge of talent, I thought he was awful. His stuff was so different. My big brother absolutely loved him. Later, I did think he was great.

Bob Copeland

He probably was awful. The greatness came in when he started writing his own songs, which was after you saw him. Funny story about your friend's wife though.

I've played guitar and bass and written songs since high school, which is how I got into this mess. I wouldn't, however, have it any other way.

Still writing and recording songs, mostly with Lisa Jenio, who sings them too. We were approached last year about contributing a song to a digital comp to benefit the victims of the fire in Lahaina. You don't hear too much about it anymore, but so many lost their homes and every single other thing and it's just still so hard over there.

The only track we had was a demo for a song called "Mornin' World" that was written in answer to a challenge a friend issued for us to write an actual positive song since our usual output is either darkly comical or just dark, lyrically anyway. It's a simple arrangement but it has a certain charm that will be hard to match when we try to make the "real" version.

It only coincidentally features ukulele and the imagery doesn't match the climate, but the sentiment might help someone get through something, maybe even a catastrophe. Here's a link if you're interested:

https://thetimemachine2.bandcamp.com/track/mornin-world

GBaby,

Thanks for this. Enjoyed the song. You are right, there is a vast population of singer/song writer/musicians that back up/play locally for every one artisit that breaks into recognition. I expect you were hooked as an artist from the beginning.

In my garage band, I was not that good. Off to college and done with Rock and Roll. Our drummer from Edina Minnesota went on to play and backup for Chicago and Paul Butterfield.

Thanks again for the song link.

Bob Copeland

Back Story - Slight Success as a Garage Band

My mom would be listening to us make noise while practicing in our garage or basement (Winter). She came into the practise and declared "You need better vocal - any of these band types can make loud instrumental noise - you need to sing". Follow-on, she paid for and scheduled us for voice lessons with this cranky old lady voice instructor in Downtown Minneapolis.

It was like a miracle. She taughts us harmony even allowing some of the band members without great voices to contribute. She taught them to say words at different intensities during a songs chorus. Like the Beatles Nowhere Man.
Back up the lead singer with saying NO....Where.....Man. She was tough on us always pushing. I remember her saying - 'the Beach Boys are nothing but a Barber Shop Quartet singing harmony".

So, we turned the musical amps down and the sound system up. We won the 50 Band Battle of the Bands at the 1964 Minnesota State Fair singing harmony to Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly and the Beach Boys Barbara Ann.

Joined the Musician's Union - hooked up with Central Booksing in Mpls - and blasted away every weekend at colleges and high schools around the State.
If my memory serves me correctly, the group made $150 a night.

But, like most start up garage bands - not to last.

Bob Copeland
"Good Bye Johnny Be Good"

I broke my balalaika.

Never got paid a penny for playing, but I almost got beat up after playing Pink Floyd in a hillbilly bar in Florida. Does that count?

I suppose that you could say that I came to scootering through music.

I played guitar in high school, but many years later I found myself learning to play mandolin. An aquantince of mine found out about this and asked me to come down to the Old Shillelagh in Detroit, thinking he was going to give me some helpful pointers I went.... Little did I know what was going to happen when I showed up, he put me on stage, plugged me in, then rattled off the chord structure of a song and off we went. What followed wa a trial by fire crash course in Irish folk music.

A couple of months later I was on my way home from playing and ran into a spot of bother that resulted in the loss of my vehicle. I needed cheap transportation, enter the Stella. (To be honest I had always wanted a vespa and it was just an excuse).

We ended up getting hired by the Michigan Renaissance Fair, and every Friday night I would load up my camping gear, mandolin, and everything else for the weekend on my Stella and make the 2 hour ride from Downtown to Holly to play for the weekend.

We ended up touring with the renaissance fair for a couple of years durring the great recession. Which is actually how I met my wife (the fairy tail of I was in the band)

We started dating, I got a straight job, and picking her up for a date on my scooter I guess sealed the deal so to say.

You simply MUST share a picture of yourself, in ren-fair garb, on the Stella with a mandolin.

Does a high school/early college years jazz band count? I played sax in my friend's Eagle Scout project band, but when people started offering us good money in the mid-80s he forgot about his Eagle badge and we were Nancy Landon Kassabaum's campaign band, opened the Spirit Fest on the main stage in Kansas City one year (Ziggy Marley and Julian Lennon were the two people on stage after us), etc. We had a good run until I was 22 and people moved away. Now, I'm in two Irish band (Boys of the Prairie and Branoc), and I've played the Kansas City Irish Festival 4 or so times and play 2 gigs per month on average (7-10 the week of St. Patrick's Day). I'm the flute player.

[/img]

Definitely!

You should have done this version:

Oh, good lord. I'm afraid to even click on that.

I busked Nob Hill, Union Sq and Fisherman's Warf with my Martin and Hohner in order to eat, the summer of '67 in San Francisco.
I considered myself a professional entertainer.

O.S.

Ahhhh..screw it! I wrote a piece on this subject yesterday (Position #3), but after a nap, I decided it was too much rubbish and simply erased it all.

But after reading the posts that have been left since yesterday, I decided to drop back in and repost. Here goes...

I got my first guitar for Christmas, 8th grade...a second-hand cherry red '58 Les Paul Jr. played through a Fender Deluxe. My first "gig" with a band was for our jr. high civics class. I remember playing "Listen to the Band" by The Monkees. The rest is lost to history and various & sundry substances over the years.

By high school, I was playing regularly with a garage band while also playing in an acoustic trio -- two guitars plus an additional vocalist, a girl with a magnificent voice. The band played pep rallies and the like; the trio played lots of coffee houses and arts festivals and such.

College saw me switching from guitar to bass, still singing. By my Junior year, I'd joined a Brit-pop/R&B four-piece. I was a voice major in college (switched to theatre, which is my B.A.), so I sang tenor arias in voice class, second bass in college choir (which paid my scholarship), and British rock plus R&B and soul on the weekends. My voice teacher about had a conniption! I skipped joining a fraternity -- why bother? We played frat parties damn near every weekend, got paid for it, and their beer was FREE!

After college, I joined an 8-piece group, still on the frat circuit. Only now, we traveled across 3 or 4 states rather than just 2. And I had switched from bass to lead vocals, percussion, and synths. I had grown out my fingernails and began putting purple polish flecked with glitter on 'em. I had our roadies put pinpoint spotlights on my percussion set-up so that when I played congas, my nails sparkled and gleamed, throwing light onto the dancers. Played several gigs at the University of Alabama...somehow always at the frat house next door to a band from Tuskegee, AL called The Commodores. We'd drop in on their gig -- and drink their beer -- during our breaks, and they'd do the same during theirs. Imagine my surprise a couple of years later when, one night during a radio air shift, I dropped "Brickhouse" onto the turntable!

And that brings us to when I was offered an on-air job at my hometown progressive album rock FM station -- a 100k-watt flamethrower. No brainer: I got off the road. Back to the bass, though, as a couple of other staff members and I formed a punk band and played for station parties for a while.

Moved to Los Angeles in 1991, where I was lucky enough to be employed as a TV writer/producer for a decade. By 2002, my partner had passed away, and I returned to my hometown for a respite. Promptly hooked up with a long-time friend from that college four-piece, and we started doing an acoustic duo bar/pub thing. But in my heart, I was a Californian, so I returned to L.A. in less than a year. I moved to Palm Springs a year after that. Been here ever since.

I haven't picked up an instrument in over 20 years, and I honestly never give it a thought. I listen to W-A-Y too much jazz, though. And I ride scoots.

So I ask you, Mr. Copeland...does this fit in among the answers to your original question? Been riding some form of two-wheel motorized transport since shortly after I got my first guitar...that would be about 56 years ago.

BTW -- congrats to all y'all who posted links to songs. Some truly great music out there!

That's it from the SoCal desert. I hope you'll forgive the interruption. I now return you to your regularly scheduled programming...

Ok, I'm adding a requirement to this thread. All y'all better start posting pictures.

Well, I only got paid real money once as a Tuba player; most likely to get me to stop playing. I played almost every day from when I was 10 years old up through college. I was offered a full ride to University of Kentucky, but I did not want to major in music, so it was pulled. But I played in the marching band and pep band.

But on Halloween, I will break out the big piece of brass and play some tunes for the kiddos. The kids will sometimes drop a piece of candy down the bell as payment.

Believe me...I wish I HAD some of those pictures!

Now THAT'S a true musician! 🤓

My band, Strange But Surf was formed during a Scooter Club ride of The Hornets to Long Beach, L.I.N.Y. My nickname "Marbles Mahoney" is from a Punk Band I was in in the 80's, BTW...

It was on the Boardwalk watching the Surfers that me and another member desided to form a Surf Band, since nobody else was at the time. Circa 2003. We have had many incarnations since. We are now a Trio. Here we are opening for the B-52s at a sold out show (1800+) at The Space in Westbury.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hpx2c7tPis

Here is my original song, :The Martians Are Pissed" Written, Directed, Produced, Animated and Performed by me w/ Strange But Surf, off our 2nd Album...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_y5lTSyWkw

Last but not least here we are this past weekend at a Block Party/Car Show...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUFlSjhvJGE

The Hornets LISC has always been more than a Scooter Club. The connections and friendships made during the past 25 years are more than just miles on the odometer. We have released 3 albums and 3 more this year. We also host a Surf Music Festival that started in my Levittown Backyard and is now in NYC called Twangstock.

https://twangstock.wordpress.com/

May the Surf be with you, always...

https://twangstock.wordpress.com/

Nothing like old punk rockers. Sounds like we have a few.

Great photo!

Our very own RussBees comes to our SW Wisconsin rides with his bugle and has been known to play reveille for us. I'd be willing to discuss incentives for you to come to join him.

Of course it could get us kicked out of our lodgings.....

I'm a trombone-ist...but fortunately (for those within earshot) a fake one.

The one and only picture of the greatest High School band (at least in our school) in 1973... Orion.

That's me on the right playing my trusty Kapa Continental.

Hmmm...lessee...is that a Kustom P.A. head on the floor? (Always wanted a Kustom guitar/bass amp!) And a Fender Bassman w/perhaps a 2-15 spkr cab? Got one for high school graduation...first gig, our drummer flaked and I ended up playing drums instead of guitar thru my brand-new amp!

I'll bet you guys were the real deal! 😉

Great pic!

Good eye. Yes, we had a Kustom PA. The speaker cabinets are not in the picture. I believe they had 4- 12" speakers in the tall tuck and roll cabinets.

I was using a Fender Bandmaster head and cabinet. 40 watts, 2 12" speakers.

Very cool!

A Bandmaster! I shoulda known! had a pre-CBS black-faced one with the old-skool horizontal 2-12 cab. Great amps!

And to me, growing up/playing back in Mississippi, nothing said "California" to me more than a tuck-and-roll Kustom rig -- with the red (or blue) metal flake vinyl!

So, while I've never played professionally, my older brother had for a long time. Thrash metal to jazz, he simply loved music. He played trumpet for Getzen Instruments after high school and then the jazz circuit for a long time. And his son, Zakk, has continually been in bands as long as I can remember, everything from scream-o to country. Here are some pics of Scott. Sadly, he passed away suddenly in Feb 2021 at the age of 58.

Great pictures. Thanks for posting. Sorry for your loss.

I remember sitting in my bedroom with him showing him how a guitar works. Within a year he had translated years of jazz music theory onto the guitar and was playing Metallica solos. Jerk.

Seriously, though. What a musician. In high school he played the solo trumpet part for Pagliacci for three years. I still have a copy somewhere. 1978-1980 our high school had a phenomenal jazz band. They took all sorts of awards.

Found an old set list. Some of our older members might recognize a few of these songs.

Dude! I sure as hell woulda paid a two-drink minimum to have heard that gig!

"Never In My Life"?!?!?! Love love love me some Mountain! They played a show in Jackson, MS when I was in high school. I traded another Les Paul Jr. I had to the big music store downtown -- on a Saturday, day of show -- for an Epiphone jumbo acoustic. About an hour later, I got a call from the store -- Leslie West had come in and bought my Jr.! Sure enough, that night he played it onstage. Freaked my 16-year-old mind right on out!

So sorry about your brother. He was a musician to his soul. My friend Leonard Gershe used to say that losing someone like that -- a musician, a writer, a teacher -- was like having a library burn down. We never have access to all that knowledge and talent again

Bummer.

1982

I knew there were many musicians lurking out there. Great photos, great stories. DVH1150, you actually played allot over the years. Hornet, wild surf music. Also, those old photos are priceless. The set song list was a time machine for me.

Keep on Rocking and Scooting.

Bob Copeland
Frostbite Falls Minnesota