This is my third installment about the making of the Hudson Valley band “Stockade” covering the years 1967-68.
“Jeff, you’re spreading yourself a little thin there, aren’t you?” That is a question that I should have asked myself back in 6th grade of 1967-68. I don’t know how, but I managed to juggle quite a few “extra-curricular” bands outside of The Stockade, which were as follows:
“The Blues Feeling”
This was a band that consisted of other musicians from my neighborhood. You might remember “Paul”, my cousin (The Stockade’s “recording engineer”). He picked up a Farfisa Organ and became the keyboard player of this new band. Two other cousins of mine, “Paul” (Yep, another one) and “Dave” were on guitars along with me on my guitar. (Notice again, NO BASS).
There was my good friend “Greg” who fronted the band with his really fine vocals. And finally “Steve” another long time friend (who lived just down the hill from me) was on drums. Both Greg and Steve would go on to be practically life-long musical cronies of mine. We shared some very creative years in various bands from the 1970’s, well into the next century.
“Yesterday’s Newspaper” (a.k.a. “The Miracle Dirt”)
This line-up consisted of friends from my 6th-grade class at Hyde Park Elementary School. My friend “Mark” was our singer and another great voice to boot. One of our big numbers was,”Mercy, Mercy, Mercy” in the style of The Buckinghams. Our drummer Steven G. (not to be confused with “Steve” from The Blues Feeling) wanted to give this band a more “campy” name, suggesting we call ourselves “The Miracle Dirt.”
I thought the name had quite the ring to it. We were scheduled to play a gig at our school “cafetorium” (yeah, that’s what they called it). And so in light of playing within the hallowed halls of our school, we thought we should retain the more conservative moniker of Yesterday’s Newspaper.
This band had a real bass player named “Jeff.” No, not me, it was another Jeff who was learning on the fly and doing an amazing job of it. Bass-man Jeff would go on to be a musical force himself in the Hyde Park area playing in a well-known band called “The River Rats” (We all lived either near or next to The Hudson River, after all).
I have this vague memory of playing “Bend Me, Shape Me” (by The American Breed) with these guys at a practice in my basement. The Stockade was not really down with doing corny top 10 hits…But I was!
“The Brass-Bottom Boat”
I found four more talented friends from this seemingly endless pool of musicians at school. Using some recruits from our school band we formed a Tijuana Brass copy band. It consisted of “Fred”, “Frank” and myself on trumpets. There was also Fred’s brother “Rusty” on trombone. At first Rusty only knew one note on his new trombone. He used that note to good effect on the “stinger” at the end of “Tijuana Taxi.”
Lookin’ sharp in our snazzy suits!
Keeping time for us was another talented drummer, “Tommy.” In the future, Tommy would join up with bass-man Jeff as part of The River Rats. Then, several years after that band, Tommy would end up working in a band with me called the Moonshiners. (see https://jeffbelding.com/musical-connections-stockade-nrbq-moonshiners-willie-amrod-frank-gadler/) Confused? I probably was at the time, myself, but I had no concept of what over-extending myself meant.
The Tommy and Jeff Duo
That’s right…The very same Tommy who was a part of The Brass Bottom Boat, joined up with me for a Guitar and Drum Duo. We covered the more “psychedelic sounds” of 1968: “Foxy Lady” – “Sunshine of Your Love” – “Purple Haze” – and “Born To Be Wild” to name a few.
One fond memory was the two of us “doing our thing” at our sixth grade graduation pool party sometime in the summer of 1968. That gig helped me to pursue a relationship with my first girlfriend ”Lynn.” I gave her my I.D. bracelet and everything! We would meet up at block party dances and other events around Hyde Park all during that summer of ’68.
At the end of August, Lynn and her family were getting ready to move to Florida. And so, we had our last block dance together later that month. She was a great dancer and I learned a lot about late ’60’s teen dance moves in the times I spent with her. On that final, fateful last evening, she handed back my I.D. bracelet, and then we…oh, that’s right, I was too shy to kiss her. I think I did shake her hand, and then, she was gone…Exit awkward little Jeff’s first girlfriend.
Okay, enough about my sad love-life. The moral of this story (so far) is that I couldn’t seem to stuff enough “musical paths” in my already over-taxed schedule. Between all these bands and their various directions, I was navigating deep musical waters without a rudder.
However, as 1968 marched on, many of these extra-curricular bands started to dissolve. By the time 7th grade rolled around, I managed to narrow myself down to just two bands in my life – The Stockade and The Blues Feeling. Both of these bands continued practicing and getting gigs as well. And then along came an event that would prove to be a personal catharsis and revelation for me!
Band Wars
The event was called “The Best of the Beat”, sponsored by the Poughkeepsie Jaycees. Most of us know the more generic phrase for such an event which is, “Battle of the Bands.” This contest actually happened shortly before I graduated from my (1968) sixth grade class. So even while I had all these other musical “irons on the fire”, both The Stockade and The Blues Feeling were signed up to compete in this “Best of the Beat” show. Therefore, I was competing against myself. Was I CRAZY?!?
The lead-up to this competition is a bit hazy as to how I worked it out. I was still practicing with The Stockade at Western Publishing every Saturday. Then, I believe I was practicing with The Blues Feeling on some other night of the week. I don’t really recall there being a lot of animosity between these two bands that I was working with. Perhaps words were said when I wasn’t around such as where the heck my priorities were and who they were with. I guess I was too much of a “dopey little kid” to get paranoid about people “talkin’ trash” behind my back.
Befall That Fateful Night
And so, the evening arrived for my first Battle of the Bands. The excitement was electric. For the first time, I was on a “big stage” with a huge curtain and a sizable audience waiting on the other side of it! Now granted, I had done this before in the context of a school band concert on my trumpet, but this was different! I was playing electric guitar and most of my competing peers were a half-decade or more my senior.
To me, this was a huge moment. I had come from throwing tantrums from trying to learn an“impossible“ G chord to using all the musical skills I had gained in three years to win this thing somehow and with some band.
Neither one of my bands were the first to go on. I don’t recall any of the bands that preceded us or even what they sounded like. I suppose I was too preoccupied with “getting the job done.”
Something To Prove
The Stockade was the first of my bands to be on deck. We got into position behind the closed curtain. Our first song we had up was “Good Lovin’” by The Young Rascals (if there was a second song, I don’t remember it!). The curtain opened like some giant door to a Jurassic-like theme park, and then…
Laughter, uproarious laughter! The audience totally lost it! I guess one look at these dorky little kids and it was just a natural reaction. As the laughter continued, I looked to one side and said, “We’ll show ‘em!” Then I looked to the other side and yelled it again…and with that, we launched into,”Good Lovin’.”
Now looking back at our rehearsals, I never paid much mind to my stage presence. I was too busy trying to play my part correctly. But that night when that song started, I swear something unworldly took ahold of me. I was making up some kind of crazy choreography to go along with this song. Every 2-beats of every measure, I dropped from right knee to left knee and would only stop if I had to sing “Good Lovin’” into the mic. I was all over that bloody stage, and this was before I had ever heard of such a “cat” as Pete Townshend!
Let me tell you man, we killed it, and by the time that song was over, the audience was right with us. We made them realize that what we lacked in height, we totally made up for in putting on a show! The epiphany of that moment for me, was realizing that it’s not enough to play all the right notes and have a perfect performance. The only way you get noticed and remembered is to (unfortunately or not) make a spectacle of yourself. If that means going freakin’ nuts and doing some maniacal maneuvers, then so be it. That was now a firm part of my job description from that moment-on.
A little later, the other band that I was a part of (The Blues Feeling) was on. I gave it all I had for that moment as well. My cousin Dave was also quite the showman with his guitar, so between the two of us and the rest of the band we made our mark on the audience as well.
The Envelope Please…
So then it came time to announce the winners of The Best of the Beat. First place went to “Mrs. Luna’s Crispy Cornflake Band.” Oddly enough, their name doesn’t show up in the sample newspaper clipping. To this day, I don’t know what that band sounded like. My sister, Dianna, later told me they were really great, and I certainly trusted her judgement in music. Gotta say, I loved that name!
Now the judges had a bit of a dilemma as I was told later on. They had this band of “little shavers” called The Stockade that could play just as well as all these “big boys” that were 18 and older. So the “Cornflake Band” was the winner of (the newly-instated) Category A. Then, they went on to spontaneously create a Category B, and made The Stockade the winner of that new category for bands where all members were age 13 or younger.
All the guys in The Blues Feeling (except me) were in the Category A (older) age group, so the greater competition of that older age group was partially why this band didn’t rate closer to the top. Not to worry though. The Blues Feeling continued to have a pretty good run, and I managed to juggle both bands as well as their various engagements for a while longer.
And so The Stockade beat all the odds regardless of our “tender” ages. We continued getting regular weekend work at places like the YWCA and Violet Avenue School dances (my cut-$3.00 per gig). During the week, I had a regular gig with The Blues Feeling. This was a weekly dance/party for the nurses who had residencies at the Hudson River State Hospital. Somehow, there were never any schedule clashes or other conflicts. If there were, I‘ve long since blocked them from my mind.
Them Changes
As was inevitable, the winds of change began blowing. As I mentioned, The Stockade had three guitarists: Gary, myself, and Nelson. Sometime during 1968, Nelson announced that he was leaving the band. The reason why will always be a mystery. It might have been “something” that “somebody” said about him at a school dance where we were playing one night. He was one of my best friends all through childhood, so I was sad to see him go, but he did have many other interests to pursue, so his time had come to exit.
Now as I mentioned earlier, I had been working with a whole bunch of drummers in my “assortment” of extra-curricular bands. There was “Steven” with Yesterday’s Newspaper. Then there was “Tommy” from the Brass Bottom Boat. And then “Steve” my neighbor and childhood friend whom I had been working with in The Blues Feeling.
Of course all through my early years in the band business there was “Lenny” with The Stockade. The first time I played along with Lenny, it was a huge thrill for me! I had never observed what the drummer of a rock band did “up close” until I watched Lenny on that first day. Not to mention that he was part of our unit that gave The Stockade its first notoriety in our area at The Best of the Beat.
Lenny was a great guy with a great sense of humor. One time at band practice, he took me aside and asked,”Hey Jeff, that’s a new jacket (referring to the sport coat that I was wearing), isn’t it?” I answered, ”Yeah, but how did you know that?” Lenny’s response: “Because the price tag is still on it!” Sure enough, he was right! The laughter was always infectious in moments like this one.
Anyway, between these other drummers, it was inevitable that I made mental notes of who kept the best time or to coin a phrase, “The Best of the Beat.” Through the process of elimination, that drummer was (my neighbor and friend) “Steve” from The Blues Feeling. I don’t really want to go into the “soap opera” of how The Stockade replaced their original drummer with the “new guy.”
This was an extremely hard decision, but as a band we unfortunately felt it was practical. The die was cast. As a result, a long-time friendship was lost…Forever! If you want to know how the “changing of the drummers” went down, read about The Beatles replacing Pete Best with Ringo. Granted, we didn’t have the fame of The Beatles, but that time in their existence has (to me) some eerie parallels with ours.
The Start of Something Big
In that year of 1968, with Steve suddenly brought on board, we had a mountain of music to throw his way. In a matter of a week, he soaked it all up like a sponge. Our first gig with him was at (guitarist) Gary’s sister’s High School graduation party. When we finished playing that gig, we knew we had something special. Here is an excerpt from Steve’s first rehearsal with us. Though the tape is a bit distorted (No one was watching the tape machine), it highlights many of Steve’s skills as a young R&R drummer. The excerpts are:
- Feelin’ Alright – Rare Earth
- Are You Happy? – Iron Butterfly
- Evil Woman – Crow
- Evil Woman (Totally different song) – Spooky Tooth (Early Gary Wright) – You will hear me go into some kind of maniacal laughing fit – I was either overjoyed or laughing about some mistake…I don’t remember which!
This latest 5-piece line-up, Dominic (keyboard), Nick (bass), Gary and me (guitars), and now Steve on drums launched the beginning of an incredible musical journey for all of us. Though the story of Stockade (We dropped the “the”) kind of begins here, I may want to consult with my former bandmates before continuing this story. From1968-on, we became Stockade, and for all we cared the musical sky was now the limit!!!
