<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When their first record came out on January 29, 1968, the eponymously titled <\/span>Steppenwolf <\/span><\/i>album turned heads mostly because <\/span>Born to be Wild<\/span><\/i> became such a massive hit.\u00a0 The album as a whole was one of the greatest \u2018first albums\u2019 released in a period when bands were kicking out music that would become the foundation of what radio now calls Classic Rock.\u00a0 The summer of 1968 found me between my freshman and sophomore high school years and finally old enough to attend the teen dances held at Marquette\u2019s Bishop Baraga H.S. gym on Baraga Avenue.\u00a0 I heard <\/span>Born to be Wild<\/span><\/i> on Mike Burr\u2019s WDMJ radio show (our local AM radio music source), but had yet to hear the whole album.\u00a0 By chance, the first dance I attended at BBHS featured a band who had gone down the Steppenwolf road at full speed and they rocked <\/span>Born to be Wild<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0 There was no doubt in my mind:\u00a0 songs on the radio were great but hearing those songs done live kicked my \u2018wanna be in a band\u2019 aspirations into high gear.\u00a0 When the album was finally added to my drum practice pile, I realized the band from the BBHS dance had even copied Steppenwolf\u2019s wardrobe, love beads, paisley shirts, and all.\u00a0 Viewing the cover of the album today will give you the exact image the band at BBHS projected.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Playing the drums along with Steppenwolf\u2019s superb drummer, Jerry Edmonton, was a great learning experience.\u00a0 Singing along with singer, songwriter, guitarist, and band leader John Kay was also great training.\u00a0 There wasn\u2019t a track on that album I didn\u2019t enjoy playing minus maybe <\/span>The Pusher<\/span><\/i> (not a song my mother wanted to hear in her basement due to the blasphemous chorus).\u00a0 One song that did not become a hit is still one of my favorite cuts;\u00a0 <\/span>Berry Rides Again<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0 The guitar, rollicking piano, and lyrics are an obvious homage to the Chuck Berry – Johnny Johnson school of rock and roll.\u00a0 Name checking Berry song titles and characters, John Kay\u2019s tune takes the listener on a historical field trip of musical hotspots like Memphis, New York City, and Los Angeles.\u00a0 I may not have realized it at the time, but singing this whole tale with Kay improved my drumming, vocals, and ability to remember the lyrics to anything I wanted to play.\u00a0 There are five long verses and no real chorus so getting the whole story straight was a terrific way for me to learn the art of how to turn songs into coherent arrangements.\u00a0 Kay inserts three breaks in the beginning of the third verse (where the band stops, accents the first word of the lyric, then goes back into the full arrangement in the fourth line) thereby putting his knack for writing catchy songs right up there with the best.\u00a0 John Kay has always been under-appreciated for his songwriting.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Years after learning to play along with this album, <\/span>Born to be Wild<\/span><\/i> had become a song we performed regularly with my bands The Twig and Knockdown.\u00a0 I am drawing a blank as to whether or not we played it with Sledgehammer, but the <\/span>Steppenwolf<\/span><\/i> album still has a connection to my last college band.\u00a0 After spending the better part of my senior year playing alongside our version of John Kay, Barry Seymour (guitarist, vocalist, arranger), I found myself thinking of him whenever I heard <\/span>Berry Rides Again<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0 Yes, I know <\/span>Berry<\/span><\/i> was about Chuck and not our Barry, and even though we never learned <\/span>Berry Rides Again<\/span><\/i>, in my mind, the song got hitched to Barry Seymour.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0That Barry and I ended up playing in a band in the first place is a tale unto itself.\u00a0 Barry was a freshman when I was a senior so we were not acquainted in high school.\u00a0 In previous articles I have mentioned him telling me The Twig was one of the first live bands he went to see.\u00a0 Ironically one of the gigs he specifically talked about was one we played in the round at the old Bishop Baraga HS which had recently closed and was being turned into a youth center. \u00a0 I later became aware of a band playing Chicago style horn rock in town (including some horn players and a drummer from our high school band), but I did not know that Barry was their guitar player and lead vocalist.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0After The Twig broke up and just before I joined Knockdown, Mike Kesti and I were invited to jam with some of Sunstone\u2019s members at drummer Tom Lyon\u2019s house.\u00a0 I had picked up a cheap portable organ and was trying to learn how to play keyboards again.\u00a0 I was not used to not being the drummer while jamming with others, but I contributed what I could.\u00a0 Not knowing my way around the keys very well, it was not really comfortable for me, but I thought we had fun.\u00a0 Barry recalls his impression of me was less than he had hoped for;\u00a0 \u2018arrogant\u2019 was the description he used and I know exactly how he meant it.\u00a0 I dislike the \u2018arrogant attitude\u2019 in others so it still moritfies me to this day that I projected that image to him back then.\u00a0 The first time I really talked with Barry about being a guitar player was a couple of years later (in August of 1973) when Sunstone played the employee party at the Huron Mountain Club.\u00a0 We talked briefly at the HMC gig and I was impressed with how they carried the Chicago flag (horn rock bands are not easy to cover well).\u00a0 I do remember telling him, \u201cperhaps we can jam again one day,\u201d but it would be another year before our paths would cross a third time.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As fate would have it, my second band, Knockdown, broke up just before the summer of 1974. Our lead singer and guitarist, Ray, mustered out of the Air Force and returned to his roots in southern Illinois.\u00a0 It was a timely break for me because it would not have been possible for me to play summer gigs while working at NMU\u2019s Field Station east of Munising.\u00a0 It would be my first summer working one job instead of two (band gigs being my primary job in 1972 – 1973) and the first time in three years I would find myself back in Marquette for most of August.\u00a0 Late that summer, a couple of us decided to check out a Sunstone gig at the Marquette Mountain Ski Hill chalet.\u00a0 Almost a year after talking with Barry at the HMC, we got to talk about music again.\u00a0 Barry surprised me when he said this was one of Sunstone\u2019s last jobs as they were splitting up.\u00a0 Bells went off (at least in my head, maybe Barry\u2019s also) so I said, \u201cHey, my band broke up in June.\u00a0 Maybe we can get together and see what happens.\u201d\u00a0 Barry must have liked the idea because he called me up a bit later and we arranged a little two man jam at my folk\u2019s house.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Whatever issues we may have had from our previous jamming experience, we knew right off the bat we were taking the first steps to form a new band.\u00a0 Barry was learning <\/span>Without You<\/span><\/i> by the Doobie Brothers and one cold run through (with me knowing nothing about the song) gave me that warm fuzzy feeling one gets when a song clicks.\u00a0 I offered to ask my old Knockdown bass player to come to the next session and Barry said he had a couple of ideas for a second guitarist.\u00a0 With my summer job extending into October (I had to go back and open the Field Station up for weekend retreats), we used September and October to get a set list together.\u00a0 We even managed to play a free gig for a JH dance at St. Michael\u2019s school before the unreliability of my old Knockdown bandmate made us realize he needed to be replaced.\u00a0 Fortuitously, Barry and I were checking out a band at the same ski chalet bar when we ran into Mike Kesti, newly returned from Toledo, Ohio.\u00a0 Mike was in a post college band there that did not pan out so we latched on to him as our new bass player.\u00a0 With second guitarist Lindsey and Mike on board, we started rehearsing, helped Mike build a great PA system from scratch, and gigged as much as we could for the next eight months.\u00a0 By April of 1975, we were a well honed band and Mike put in some extra time to gather the equipment for us to record a live cassette tape of a gig at the Four Seasons Lounge in Marquette.\u00a0 When summer arrived, Lindsey graduated from high school and headed to Florida.\u00a0 We played our last few gigs as a power trio and called it a day just before I was offered a teaching job in Ontonagon.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0During the rest of 1975 and into 1976, Barry called me a couple of times to join him playing pick up gigs with a Marquette bass player named Gordon Coleman.\u00a0 The Gordon Coleman Trio did not actually exist as a regular performing unit and was rarely a trio.\u00a0 Gordon would book jobs and then hire whatever musicians he could scrape together to play them (no rehearsals, I might add).\u00a0 The two gigs I played with the GCT (at a frat house party and a New Years Eve gig at the Marquette Golf and Country Club) were a lot of fun for me.\u00a0 Tossing a bunch of musicians together to play whatever tunes one or more of them knew was interesting.\u00a0 A lot of the music came from the \u2018basic bar band standards\u2019 we were all familiar with.\u00a0 I think Gordon liked the fact that Barry and I had a pretty good catalog of songs to add to the mix.\u00a0 Being a Moody Blues fan, it was great to finally get to play <\/span>Nights in White Satin <\/span><\/i>live, especially when the keyboard player who lead the arrangement gave me a double thumbs up, saying, \u201cThat was great!\u201d\u00a0 After 1977, Barry and I kind of lost touch with each other.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Once in a while, a name will pop in my head so I do a quick web search to see if any new information about them comes up.\u00a0 At times, a list of dozens of similarly named people will fill the screen.\u00a0 So it seemed to be the case with \u2018Barry Seymour\u2019 – until I read over an account I found early in the new millennium.\u00a0 This particular Barry had a site detailing voice over work he had done and was available to do in the future.\u00a0 One of the \u2018voices\u2019 he had on his resume was \u2018Yooper\u2019.\u00a0 After a quick inquiry via his web site, I found this was indeed THE Barry Seymour I had lost touch with a quarter of a century ago.\u00a0 Over the course of several years, we filled each other in on what had transpired since our last band job together with Gordon Coleman.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Barry always had that natural \u2018radio voice\u2019 so it did not surprise me to find out he had spent time as a DJ and ad-man in radio.\u00a0 When I listen to some of the ad pitches he has archived on his web site, it reminds me why I still love radio so much.\u00a0 A creative, well produced spot is like a mini sitcom and Barry had the stable of voices to bring them to life.\u00a0 His first marriage came and went (\u201ctoo young\u201d) and he ended up doing a stint in the Navy.\u00a0 After mustering out, he landed in San Francisco.\u00a0 He married again and eventually his actress wife and their two girls migrated south to Los Angeles.\u00a0 When the West Coast Bureau of WOAS-FM was still in Los Angeles, I spent the better part of a decade making \u2018inspection visits\u2019 (okay, vacations) to visit Elizabeth, Todd, and their cats.\u00a0 When Barry found out I was coming to L.A., we managed to get together at Ye Olde King\u2019s Head pub in Santa Monica to catch up face to face.\u00a0 With the WCB now in Eugene, it has been a good decade since our last in person visit, but we have stayed in touch.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Was I surprised to learn that Barry spent much of the last year recording original material while hunkering down during the pandemic?\u00a0 Nope, not one bit.\u00a0 While he has been in bands off and on since landing in California, Barry had not dabbled in playing live or writing his own material for some time.\u00a0 With the state of technology these days, a little computer knowledge and talent can fuse into some pretty professional sounding home recordings.\u00a0 Barry works in the computer biz and definitely has the talent, so he set to work on a set of tunes he titled <\/span>Nice Hat<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0 These will be compiled and aired when we resume broadcasting this fall.\u00a0 <\/span>Nice Hat<\/span><\/i> is now available at <\/span>www.barryseymour.com<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>http:\/\/soundcloud.com\/barry-seymour\/sets\/nice-hat<\/span><\/a> (exchanging \u2018nice-hat\u2019 to \u2018lost-in-blue\u2019 at the soundcloud address will eventually bring up his current work in progress).<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I decided it was time to give Barry the full rock star treatment.\u00a0 From time to time, <\/span>Classic Rock<\/span><\/i> magazine will ask an artist to take their \u2018quiz\u2019 so we thought we would adapt the <\/span>CMR <\/span><\/i>quiz and apply it to Barry.\u00a0 The <\/span>questions<\/b> are in bold, followed by Barry\u2019s answers.\u00a0 Here we go:<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Beatles or Stones? <\/b>Beatles.\u00a0 I respect the Stones, but I love the Beatles.\u00a0 <\/span>AC\/DC or Led Zeppelin?<\/b>\u00a0 AC\/DC, I like their scrappy attitude.\u00a0 <\/span>Hendrix or Page?\u00a0 <\/b>Stevie Ray Vaughn (<\/span>my note:\u00a0 I have heard of \u2018trick questions\u2019 but not \u2018trick answers\u2019<\/span><\/i>).\u00a0 <\/span>Sixties or Seventies Music?\u00a0 <\/b>Seventies! It\u2019s my era.\u00a0 <\/span>Gibson or Fender?\u00a0 <\/b>Fenderrrrr!\u00a0 Nothing beats a good Stratocaster or Telecaster (<\/span>my note:\u00a0 Barry Played a Strat in Sledgehammer<\/span><\/i>).\u00a0 <\/span>Fine wine or Beer?<\/b>\u00a0 Wine – Beer\u2019s too close to water.\u00a0 <\/span>Piercings or Tattoos?\u00a0 <\/b>Either \/ or.\u00a0 I am getting old enough to consider both.\u00a0 <\/span>Love or Money?\u00a0 <\/b>Love.\u00a0 <\/span>Touring by Truck or Van?\u00a0 <\/b>Van.\u00a0 More maneuverable (<\/span>my note:\u00a0 Sledgehammer was a truck and van band<\/span><\/i>).\u00a0 <\/span>Cardio or Weights?\u00a0 <\/b>Cardio.\u00a0 <\/span>Denim or Leather?\u00a0 <\/b>Denim.\u00a0 Leather is too pretentious.\u00a0 <\/span>Book or Movie?\u00a0 <\/b>Book.\u00a0 <\/span>Prog or Punk? <\/b>Prog.\u00a0 Punk is too artless for my taste.\u00a0 <\/span>Rock or Disco?\u00a0 <\/b>Disco came and went but Rock lives on!\u00a0 <\/span>Horror or Comedy?<\/b>\u00a0 Comedy.\u00a0 <\/span>Early Bird or Night owl?\u00a0 <\/b>Night owl.\u00a0 That\u2019s when you play the gigs.\u00a0 <\/span>Doobie Brothers or BTO?\u00a0 <\/b>Doobies.\u00a0 BTO was good, but the Doobs had a longer, deeper, more varied career (<\/span>my note:\u00a0 Sledgehammer did a LOT of songs by both!<\/span><\/i>)\u00a0 <\/span>Cats or Dogs?\u00a0 <\/b>Both!\u00a0 <\/span>Lover or Fighter?\u00a0 <\/b>Lover.\u00a0 <\/span>Vinyl or Streaming?\u00a0 <\/b>Neither.\u00a0 WAV or MP3.\u00a0 <\/span>Yoopers or Trolls?\u00a0 <\/b>YOOPERS all da way, eh!\u00a0 (<\/span>my last note:\u00a0 Ya sure, you betcha!<\/span><\/i>)<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0There you have it, a slightly biased account of my 47 year association with Sir Barry Seymour (hey, it works for Sir Paul, doesn\u2019t it?).\u00a0 I would like to thank Barry for indulging me with the modified <\/span>CRM <\/span><\/i>quiz and giving everyone a little peek into his soul.\u00a0 Barry has an open offer to have me come out and drum on some of his new tunes.\u00a0 The only problem (outside the travel costs)?\u00a0 The same technology that makes it possible to do high quality DIY recording projects also includes some pretty darn good drum programs that Barry has added to his arsenal of musical weapons.\u00a0 Bet you never thought you would hear me say that, did you Barry!<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Top Piece Video:\u00a0 Not a video, but the photo is interesting because it is one of the few pictures that ever showed John Kay without his trade mark shades.\u00a0 Also displays the wardrobe copied by the first live band I heard cover Born to be Wild<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When their first record came out on January 29, 1968, the eponymously titled Steppenwolf album turned heads mostly because Born to be Wild became such a massive hit.\u00a0 The album as a whole was one of the greatest \u2018first albums\u2019 released in a period when bands were kicking out music that would become the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8,12,6,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bands-musicians","category-from-the-vaults","category-humor","category-new-music","category-woas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2255"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2258,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2255\/revisions\/2258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}