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As I remember it, I answered an ad sometime in October of 1976 for musicians
interested in forming a sci-fi comedy band, influences ranging from Spike Jones
to the Firesign Theatre. I showed up with a van full of keyboards, to rehearse
in the old Desilu (?) studios on Gower Street in Hollywood. The band was the
brainchild of Chris Silagyi, who later went on to join one of the original
founders of The Sparks in a new band called
20/20.
We played medleys of cool nerdy TV like Star Trek & the theme from Rocky
& Bullwinkle. We recorded tunes at my mother's guest house in Northridge,
but we also recorded once in a professional studio in Hollywood. I will never
forget Phil Austin of the Firesign Theatre helping his friend Chris with the
production that day - Phil handed out cans of Budwieser Beer to the band before
we recorded our basic tracks. There was a Sci Fi movie script & score that
Chris was working on called "Champion" about a game show contestant named Boon
that wins a trip to the Moon, but gets kidnapped (in space) along the way.
There was another movie about a Hillbilly feud, we recorded demos for lots of
these projects, but mainly I remember thinking this is cool stuff, has nothing
to do with the rock n roll I am used to, but in many ways the material was a
better fit for my personality than any other band I worked in.
I played with Chris one more time before leaving LA at the end of 1984, there
was a show about a fictional nightclub called the Limbo Lounge. It played at a
small theatre in North Hollywood, and featured 4 or 5 stand up comedians
including one guy called
Sam Diego
, who was a fellow traveller of Tom Waits & Ricky Lee Jones. I was in the
"house band" playing keys, with Chris on guitar. We played some new tunes by
Chris, and also some covers with a somewhat satirical bent.
But one night, I think it was the night Ricky Lee Jones came to play a set,
they threw me a curve, they said hey, tonight we are going to play Green
Onions, the old Booker T song. I had no idea how it went, and I was playing the
Hammond Organ part. I got through the sound check with some coaching by Chris,
but when it came time to play it during the show, I completely screwed it up.
Later that night, as everyone was packing up, to my horror someone started
playing a tape, they had recorded our whole show that night, they recorded me
goofing it all up, and now they played it as people congregated about. I could
not even leave, because I had to pack up my stuff.
I got so flustered over that incident (and the loss of my transportation)
that I quit the gig with just a couple of weeks left in the run of the
play. I left everyone hanging. We left for Texas soon after that.
Karma being what it is, I do not think that I have ever again been on a
stage.
But hey, I have been practicing Green Onions, ever since. After 20 years, I
think I am starting to get the hang of it.
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