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EB's Story

Here's MY best recollection of how it all happened (with a little help on my "timeline" from Wayne).
If this has a decidedly "EB" slant (I-Me-Me-Mine), remember, this IS all from MY point of view...

Pre-history From the "Trilogy" Side:

The late 60's - high school daze!... The South Bay (Chula Vista High School especially, we shall see) seems to be a hot bed of musical talent. JB (John Brown) attended Mar Vista High School with me in '68, where we had a band called "The New Syennes," with Charles Peaks (drums) and his brother James on vocals and harmonica, and Larry Huntley, on guitar. I graduated from high school that summer of '68, and we decided to drop Larry (who didn't live in the South Bay area with us), and I moved over from bass to guitar. I believe we also shortened the name to "The Syennes." I think we only played a summer gig or two with this lineup before James decided that college required a little more focus and decided concentrate on his studies, and I just kind of lost interest... end of "The Syennes."

That fall, due to changing attendance boundries, JB went to CVHS, where he spent his junior and senior years. There, he formed a trio called "Dragon," with Charles and Lonnie Napier (guitar) that performed a lot of original material, much of it written by JB. They were managed by Dwight Squibb, a part-time local promoter - we won't get into his motives for wanting to associate with a bunch of teenage boys...! Although they did meet with a little success, it was a tough row to hoe back then, playing non-top 40 tunes. After an incident involving parental conflict over alleged drug use, Lonnie was shipped off to LA, and that rather abruptly ended "Dragon."

JB, Charles and I then formed trio called "Trilogy." It can not be said that I replaced Lonnie in "Dragon" as a guitar player, because it didn't happen that way at all. "Dragon" just died when he left, and "Trilogy" was a whole different deal. I don't even recall us doing any of the old "Dragon" originals. In any case, although the repertoire now included more Top 40, JB and I were still writing and performing a few new originals. To take advantage of the emergence of country-rock and Neil Young's rising popularity, Buddy Smithey (another CVHS alumni) occasionally joined us on stage on vocals and guitar. We learned a set or two of Byrds-Buffalo Springfield-Neil Young tunes on which JB switched from keyboards to bass guitar. I think we start calling the band with the extras "Trilogy-Sunrise" What fun!

Now in junior college, we all actually take a few music classes to figure out why we'd been doing what we were doing... and we meet a few new players.

In the meantime, Lonnie, who was by now working at XERB Radio (home of Wolfman Jack, a big name in radio in the late sixties and seventies), contacted JB and sez we should send up a demo tape of some of his tunes, and he'd see what he could do with them. As Dwight Squibb, still our manager, also owned and operated Bonita Recording Studio, it was simple for us to record a few tunes which we then sent up to Lonnie.

The feedback from LA on these demos was, "Maybe there are some good tunes here - but find somebody else to PLAY and SING them!" None of us had what would be considered a great voice, and Trilogy was a little "bottom-groove" light. As he had in "Dragon," on the original tunes JB was handling the bass chores on a keybass, a la Ray Manserak. 
Oh well, another dead end.

But then Dwight sez, "You know, boys, I used to co-manage the local group with the BEST vocals in town, bar none!"

Sorry, I know Dwight didn't really say that, but that was basically the message. 

Dwight was referring to "The Generations," a group we all knew of as the scourge of the local car show battle-of-the-bands. Working as a quartet (also featuring CVHS alumni), those guys must have had more trophies than Notre Dame! They were now a trio, going through some changes. A call was made, and they were agreeable to meeting us in the studio. I'll have to admit, I was a little star struck, and even though they were just another local band, it was like, to us, they were THE HOT local band - they used to wear suits and had stage moves and everything... but Wayne tells their story.

The Generations learn a couple of our tunes, JB learns a cover or two from them, and in January of 1971 we're off to GAI studios (owned by Wolfman) in Hollywood. JB will play with The Generations on the recordings, and I just go because I do so want be involved.

The session is for a demo that Lonnie will to take to a producer he knows, to see if he thinks that JB's writing will work with The Generations' vocals. I'm very impressed by how "professional" this studio seems in comparison to Dwight's, and the boys do a fine job on this demo tape. That evening, I remember Lonnie took us to a party in Bel-Aire to meet the Wolfman (at Elvis' old mansion). Wowsers! Then, home again, home again...

A couple of days later, The Generations ask JB to join them. 

Charles fades from the scene completely, and I move to the background, joining "Utah Blues Band" with still more CVHS alumni.

The Generations re-name the band with JB "Tacoma."

Tacoma's Early Times:

From that first demo tape, the newly christened quartet "Tacoma" hooks up with Lonnie's producer wannabe,
Joe Harrelson. He signs them all up and has them in Master Recording Studio in LA on the weekend of August 23 - my birthday. I make the trip to LA as well, serving as a kind of a roadie-fan-my-brother's-in-the-band capacity - plus they're gonna record two of my songs! While they are recording "Mother's Child" - a song that would be my biggest all-time hit - Harrelson sez I can go out in the studio and sing a back-up part. Ah, my life is now complete! Almost...

I think that spring and summer (1971) is also about the time JB wrote "The Ballet," as it's come to be called, and he let me write one of the "movements." It was performed live at Southwestern College with Tacoma, some horns from the Southwestern College rock ensemble class, Jack Wride (previously with "Utah") on drums, percussion and vibes, Tom Kemper on harmonica, and Buddy on pedal steel as well. We all went to Dwight's studio to record "The Ballet," and I piggy-backed a couple of my tunes on the sessions. I made a couple of copies of a "Goodbye!" tape that is (2/3) The Ballet and (1/3) my compositions: the non-"Ballet" tunes from that session (best of those: "Say Goodbye"), and Tacoma's recordings of "You, Girl" and "Mother's Child" from the first Joe Harrelson session.

An EB Side-Story:

It's now 1971 and the Viet Nam war has been chewing up the young men of our nation for many horrible years, with no end in sight. Hey, wait a minute, I'M one of those YOUNG MEN! So I worry about the draft. I worry so much it makes me nuts - I was so sure my number was up, that spring in 1971 I walk into my local Army Recruiting Office and volunteer for the draft, just so I can pick my entry date and not having hanging over my head, the great unknown. "Son," the recruiting sergeant sez, "With your smarts, you could have your pick of any service school - we could even guarantee you duty in Europe - if you'll just sign up for FOUR YEARS, instead of the two the draft requires you to serve..." No thank you, sir. Nope. I'll take my chances, I got stuff to come home to, two years is two years too many, but I figured it was the best I could do. I leave for basic training in November of '71 - six months from the day I sign up, the longest delay they offer. Hence, the "Goodbye" tape.

While I'm Gone:

Studio time in LA! Lots of Tacoma tunes get recorded... with (IMHO) poor results.
Bad mixes, flat production, out-of-tune piano, and a producer with no ear for what the band really sounds like - yeah, that's my personal impression, as an interested outsider, of the recordings produced during the Harrelson years.

Harrelson can't seem to find the right record company deal. He sez:
"You boys just gotta write that ONE song, with the right hook... and I can sell them on the rest!"
It's good advice, but it just doesn't happen...

The Whitneys adventures...

Tacoma takes its first "bar" gigs at LedBetters and Jamaica Joe's... and Pleasure, AKA BUMP CITY!

I'm Back Now... Fall of 1973:

Yippee! I'm home! After leaving California with orders for duty in Viet Nam, I spend three or four months in Honolulu and am instead swept up in the great retreat. I serve my time on Okinawa, never seeing Viet Nam! I've written a few tunes that I've sent back that (I guess) received a luke-warm welcome, but hope against hope, I hope I might be coming home to join the band.

Home again, and Yil, Doug, JB, and I are living in a house my folks bought over on Emerson Street. Here we engage in "midnight rides," cruising the deserted streets on ten-speed bikes. For the first few months after I get out of the Army, I go to the Tacoma gigs to roadie, and sit in on many occasions, thrashing away at the stuff I do know, and trashing the stuff I don't. After they've been performing for a couple years as a well-rehearsed quartet, my antics create a definite tension in the band, until finally, to alleviate my "in limbo" status, they take a vote. But it's two for, and two against. My bruised ego won't try to force the issue and I just can't stay were I'm not wanted. My dream of returning home and joining the band goes phfffft... I don't write another song for ten years.

1974

I go to work for Apex Music, where, within a few years I've gotten jobs for Yil, Wayne, and a load of the guys from Southwestern JC. Within a year or two I join the band "Tuesday," founded by Billy Hudson, another CVHS alumni.

1975:

Tacoma had been "unmanaged" since signing with Harrelson (who is strictly involved solely with the "make a record" end of the business), booking themselves whenever and where ever. Gene Barbic, one of the cheeses at Apex, takes and interest in Tacoma and books a few military-base club gigs... and that lasts for about a month!

1977:

Wayne again decides to leave the band, this time packing up and moving to Orange County.
Yil, Doug and JB ask me to join, figuring I can easily pick up Wayne's vocal parts and they won't have to adjust the repertoire. We bring in Carl "Stoney" Nelson (yet another CVHS alumni) to play drums. During this period, the band doesn't go into the studio at all. Tacoma in '77 becomes much more of a top 40 group, only throwing in the odd original tune when the crowd's not looking. The band goes on like this for less than a year, when Wayne comes back to San Diego and rejoins the band. See ya, Stoney!

At last, we get back into the studio. We do some recording at Mama Joe's (Jo Mama's?) in LA for Joe Harrelson... and this time I'm actually in the band - hence, the "WE" in the above statement! I think we do one of Wayne's, "Good Music," and a couple Joe has picked out for us - "One Way Ticket" and "Never Be Another."
I think we actually get some good mixes out of Joe, for change...
Wayne and I spot the "Ambrosia" master tapes on a shelf and get all giggly...

1978:

A substitute drummer has to "sit in" on a gig that Wayne couldn't (wouldn't?) play because he was going to the NAMM show. It was a big gig for us, the top local bands were going to be doing dances at the Del Mar Fairgrounds all summer, and this was our first shot at it. That sub was Keith Segal, a kid who worked with Yil out at Apex Music - sez he can play all the "Kansas" and "Boston" tunes we do just like the record without a rehearsal - and he does. Boy, are we excited! 
It's mutually agreed that Wayne will leave the band, again.

BarWars

Later that year, we play an after-prom dance at the Parkway Bowl lounge, Park Place. The manager hears us and thinks we're the hottest thing since sliced bread, hires us on the spot for a couple of weeks, five nights a week. Steady work!
The Rub: Some local musician (with an IQ and age that match) once tried to collect unemployment insurance from this club after a gig there. It cost them lots of money. To protect itself from future claims, the club now only hires UNION musicians, so we all join the union. Now we're PROS. Tacoma becomes a full-on bar band, and I quit my day job! We start a thang where we work five nights a week for six to eight weeks straight in a club, then move to another club for a similar engagement, then move to another club, then we're back again... between several different clubs. It's a real career deal. At Park Place, we find that the band members and employees have a real "family" camaraderie kind of thing going. We meet some great people from the bands that work the club while we're working somewhere else, and some of  the "Weekley Dues" and "Emergency Exit" band members we meet here will remain friends for life...

During one of our stretches at Park Place, we meet Robert "Bob" What's-his-name and Jerry... Gerry? Gary? Peterson? I can't quite get the handle on their names. Robert is a local guy, who, in an accident involving a cement mixer, lost a leg but gained a pile of money, and wants to invest and perhaps increase that pile by getting involved with music production. He has somehow hooked up with Gerry, a slick-talking record producer wannabe from Alabama, who actually seems to have SOME credibility. Their story, as they approach us, is that Robert wants to produce a local band, cut some records, see where it goes. Their first choice was another hugely popular [at the time] San Diego band, "Listen," but they have contractual obligations that make them unavailable. We're their second choice, and Tacoma becomes the target of the project. But we're still signed with Joe Harrelson... what ever "signed" means, after eight years and not much to show! I recall that since JB and Lasoo are the only members left who actually signed, they call Harrelson and beak the news to him that the business relationship is over.

We finally turn the page on the Joe Harrelson chapters of Tacoma...

After some pre-production in which some songs are selected - including two songs written by the unavailable "Listen" - Robert pays da bill $$$ and Gerry flies with us to Muscle Shoals, Alabama, where Gerry knows the lay of the land and will produce the sessions. We're booked into E.A.R. Studios, where as I recall, there's a gold record or two on the wall. Coooooool! An interesting note - at the same time as this trip is planned, Keith has just gotten married and decides to go on his honeymoon instead of coming with us. How much fun did he miss out on, eh?!? We use a very good studio drummer, and I think it's some of the best stuff to come out of the studio that I've ever been involved in. I actually play lead on one tune, instead of just background guitar "chups" or some other incidental part, so I'm in hog heaven. Then it's back to the BarWars, for us.

We fly back for another session, perhaps later that year - I'm BAD with the time line - cut some more sides,
and then come back to the BarWars.

The Beginning of the End

1980:

Lasoo informs us he's leaving the band to join another very popular group working locally, "The Magic If." Is he discouraged by our lack of success with the record deal? Is he tired of playing the same ol' tunes to the same ol' crowd in the same ol' bar? Is he just looking for some new musical direction? Or does he see the "If" as having a better chance at personal and professional success? These are questions for Doug's story, which I hope some day he'll post here...

After an audition and some consideration we hire Mike Thomas to replace Doug. Mike is probably one of the most talented guitar players I've ever worked with, and has a voice to rival Yil's. Studio experience? He has a couple of albums out in Europe with his jazz trio, "Stress." On paper, the addition of Mike to the band looks great... BUT...

Robert and Gerry want to take one more shot at it - but this time, they book a local studio instead of flying us back to Muscle Shoals. Doug and Mike are both in the studio with the band, so there's talent galore available, but the sessions seem unfocused. They want do re-do the vocal on "Dance, Dance, Dance," but I can't cut a take to suit them, and they give up on the tune. Somebody gets a wild hair and we take a shot at recording "Day Tripper." Finally JB coughs up some more money for additional studo time, and we record a few of his new tunes, including "Welcome Aboard," which JB produces himself. "Welcome Aboard" was never in the stage repertoire and I guess was created just for the studio - that'll be explained in JB's Story, if it ever gets explained - and turns out to be the best recording of the best tune I've ever heard from this band... and the last.

Conflicts in the band:

1981:

JB is dedicating more and more time to his studies, now in serious pursuit of a degree. Yil and Keith are chomping at the bit to completely revamp the repitoire, throw out all the "oldies" and get a more progressive rock sound going. They also want to spend big bucks on our own stage lighting to drag from bar to bar to give the band a more professional look. I start to have some serious professional and personality conflicts with Mike. One example that I recall: Mike keeps playing what he feels are the musically correct notes in a "Police" tune we do, sez he's fixing the "mistakes"... He doesn't have that "just like the record" discipline we're used to from Doug. And, he's no-way as much fun as Doug was to work with, on stage or off.  Then, one fateful night at The Dance Machine, he shows up VERY late for the gig, and, when he finally gets his gear set up and takes the stage, he just stands there with his guitar on, not playing anything... As it comes time in the next tune for his lead break, he leans over to me and sez, "You take it - I haven't had time to tune up..." I go ballistic and fire him on the spot. Tacoma will finally become a quartet again!

But it doesn't happen that way. A day or two later, Yil calls me, asks me to meet him at JB's for an important meeting. At JB's, he and Keith reveal that they've actually been rehearsing with Mike and another keyboard player, and they're leaving the band to form another, which they will call "Prophet." New tunes, new equipment, new attiudes, a full-on progressive rock show.

The Last Waltz

Tacoma has one last booking at Park Place, the club where it started the "career" phase for me, the first "BarWars" gig. I have no qualms about saying it's a very emotional event for all of us. We decide to go ahead and play it as a quartet - JB, Yil, Keith and I - and JB and I even learn a few tunes from the new "Prophet" repertoire, just to kick the occasion up a notch. The bar makes a big deal out of it being our "farewell performance" - they even have reserved seating set up at many of the tables! The gig goes great, the band really cooks, the crowd goes crazy, everybody has a fabulous time.

After it's all over, and I mean IT'S ALL OVER, someone sez to me, "You guys still sound great - you shoulda just went four-piece when Doug left, instead of dealing with all the aggravation of trying to replace him!"

I couldn't have agreed more.

JB quits da biz entirely, but I go on to form "Thumper," and rock-on for a few more years...

The Legacy

For me, the legacy is a great big pile of good times memories and life-long friendships that just can't be busted!
Get this: when Keith has a medical problem with his foot, Wayne comes back and sits in for him at a gig or two.
And as bitter and angry as I was at the demise of the band, a year or two later I'm at a gig one night with "Prophet,"
running their spiffy stage lights.

And the reunions... who'da thunk it?!?

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