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Bravermania * Saving the World with Sound!
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Early Bands And Songwriting Begins
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My first band was about
when I was 13 or 14. My friend and schoolmate Ned Love asked me to join him in a band. He played rhythm guitar, along with
Kenny (I forget his last name) on lead guitar, Steve Fisher on Bass, and Henry 'Ziggy' Zigmut on drums. We rehearsed
in Kenny's basement (an East Coast thing) where his sister had a Hammond C3 organ. She had a bit of a thing for me (and
so it continues!) and I kinda sweet-talked her into letting me wail on her organ. Then she let me play the Hammond with the
band! Ba-rump-bump!!
We did a few parties ... actually moved that huge organ (stop snickering!). We were too
young to gig much elsewhere.
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Playing with one of my early bands ... at a party for my cousin
Mickey (Pictured L-R: Ned Love, Bob Rush, Freddy Brog,
Mickey Lang, Me)
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Somewhere around
this time I started noodling around with writing music and songs. Everything was quite primative ... lyrics were often about
'society' and other 60's type social commentary. I didn't know anything about love and romance. Yet.
Later, when I was about 15, I joined another band. We named it for a term I learned in high school chemistry
class: The Heat of Formation. What a cool name!
There were several interesting things about this band. The
drummer, who was one of the area's most popular, was also named Roy. That's pretty unusual ... although it's
not an uncommon name, I don't really run into other Roy's all that often. Usually, when someone say's 'Roy'
it's me they're talking to ... so we had to get used to that. But it gets better: My sister's best friend Toni
was dating a guy named Roy ... and they would come to our practices and gigs. So there were three Roys together often. I
came to understand how Bobs and Lindas feel.
This was about 1969, and N.E. Philadelphia was primarily white middle-class.
My high school, George Washington HS, was the largest in the city. As I recall, we had a total of 3 black students ... bussed
in ... and one was Charly, the lead singer in our band (aka
Charles Sedgwick Hall ... now an actor floating around L.A. ... Charly, where are you?!). He was a great singer and a great guy. He was quite the attention getter.
The guitarist in the
band, Craig, liked to build psychodelic strobe lights and spinning color wheels and stuff like that. When we played, we had
quite the little light show going on.
We were asked to play at our high school in a program that featured three
jazz bands from our school and two others from nearby. They had us and another band set up in the 'pit' area in front
of the stage, and we were to play for 5 minutes while the jazz bands were switching behind the curtains. In my first manger-style
negotiation, I battled with the show's director to let us play our 20-minute version of Inna Gadda Da Vida. You know
it. You love it. I was sure the audience would too. He really didn't want to, but eventually gave in with this warning:
'If it gets boring, I'll turn off the power!' I agreed ... From the second I started that famous organ intro,
the audience started cheering. Our strobe lights and colorwheel lights pointed up at us and created giant strobing shadows
on the curtains. We played for about 25 minutes ... and the audience went wild with a standing ovation! My first ever.
Many of my family were there to see that.
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| The Heat of Formation |
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| GWHS 1969 |
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| The Heat of Formation |
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| GWHS 1969 |
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| In-A-Gada-Da-Vida |
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| Iron Butterfly |
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| Jim Hilton |
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| In-A-Gadda producer & my friend! |
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The Heat of Formation
played a few parties and school events. I also played a few weddings and Bar Mitzvahs here and there with Ned. It was fun
performing for people, and I certainly enjoyed the great response we usually received.
Meanwhile, I continued
singing in school choirs all through high school ... and I spent extra time taking music classes and rehearsing in various
choir formations. We sang in many school shows and productions.
Also in these teen years, I would float in and
out of various bands ... and frequently pop into jam sessions around N.E. Philly. During these fun and games, I knew and
jammed with trombonist Rich Rosenberg, aka 'La Bamba,' who plays in the Max Weinberg 7 on Late Night with Conan O'Brien.
Good for him!
Another major event in my music history happened in the summer of 1969: I went to my first concert!
It was a 'summer festival' at The Spectrum in Philadelphia. Headlining the bill: Led Zeppelin! Just after the
release of their first album! WOW! Also on the bill were Jethro Tull, Johnny Winter and Booker T & the MGs. Quadruple
WOW! Oh .. and this was my first date and led to my first real kiss! WOW WOW WOW!!! What a major event!
Soon
I would be off to college ... pre med! What a good boy! But in my senior year of high school ... love would strike! And
it had quite an impact on me musically ...
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My Music History Navigation
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