SO I WANNA BE A ROCK AND ROLL STAR
I've always had a fascination with rock music...from an early age I used to sing along with the radio to the popular hits of the day.In junior high and high school I fancied myself a singer and a bass player...well, I could approximate the vocal stylings of Geedy Lee and Robert Plant and Rob Halford,but I was left handed and besides those guys in that band from houston that opened for Robin Trower in San Antonio in 1976...I can't recall the name now...but they rocked...there weren't many left handed guitars around so when I played, I played upside down...in more ways than one.
In 1985 me,my neighbor a coworker and a buddy from high school formed what would come to be known as "Left for Dead" we had our inauguration on new years eve 1985 and annoyed the neighbors with several hours of the same song...over and over...which came to be known as "Gary's Song" (the neighbor) until they called the cop's (something we would experience many times, in many incarnations of the band) when the cops arrived we had arrived...I greet them at the door replete in sleeveless T and blue bandanna,pirate style and charm them with promises of "were done officer...10:00 curfew?I didn't know...never again...blah...blah...yadayada." The cops shut us down! (sort of) man...we are rock and ROLL!!!!
Left for dead made it to late 1986 with a catalog of 3 songs and endless jams in the garages of 2 of my houses...but it was ultimately a reason to get together and abuse drugs and alchohol and piss off the entire block...except those houses who were also abusing drugs and alchohol and would occaisionally wander up and stand in the driveway while we played.
During this time I also wrote some really lame acoustic "dylanesque" solo songs that I only shared with family and bandmates who always looked to be on the verge of vomiting but saying "that's a good one man".
This pattern ran itself down through attrition and children and job changes until 1994.
I had been dating Ann for awhile and we had the rock band jones in common...I was still in touch with my high school buddy drummer,she had a high school buddy guitarist,I had moved on to guitar at this point and lefty guitars were readily available...Ann's friend was also left handed...and we had money to buy equipment and start a band.
Wolve's @ Th' Door was born.
We practiced every weekend...practicies were big affairs...with us playing and bbq-ing and socializing.Before we knew it, we had enough original songs to play parties and we did.Soon,we built a deck/stage in our back yard and began hosting monthly jams in our back yard affectionatley called "Club Spit"...basically giant versions of the Left for dead jams with multiple bands,singers and spoken word folks performing until the cops shut us down or 10:00pm came around...It was a glorious time. We were music to break furniture by...equal parts blues,heavy metal and punk...an ugly amalgom,but effective.
By the time we started playing clubs we had 23 or so original songs and a couple of unusual covers.
Next: By the time we started playing clubs....the story continues.
FLASH! That band I referenced from Houston: POINT BLANK....
Must be that chink in my hard drive......:)