{"id":413,"date":"2015-12-17T23:31:42","date_gmt":"2015-12-17T23:31:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=413"},"modified":"2015-12-18T00:47:13","modified_gmt":"2015-12-18T00:47:13","slug":"ftv-keyboard-players-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=413","title":{"rendered":"FTV: Keyboard Players Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Drummers and bass players always appreciate each other because they are the foundation in most bands. \u00a0Without any disrespect to the four and six string guitar slingers out there, I have also always enjoyed my encounters with keyboard players. \u00a0My fascination with keyboards may be rooted in my abandonment of piano for the drums way back when. \u00a0Some years later, I decided that I should add guitar to my basic musical knowledge rather than pick up my keyboard studies. \u00a0Granted, when I inherited my sister\u2019s Airline acoustic guitar, I had already been \u2018drum crazy\u2019 for a good six years. \u00a0\u00a0It was just sitting there taunting me so I asked a couple of guitar players for some pointers about chords and tuning before starting a very informal, self-taught guitar instruction course. \u00a0I had a couple of signature \u2018riffs\u2019 I would play to help me build up my dexterity. \u00a0Repeatedly practicing my basic riffs drove my summer job roommate nuts, but it gave me something to do. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I picked up the guitar with the idea that I could learn enough to allow me to figure out songs I wanted the band to learn. \u00a0My old bass player Mike used to say, \u201cas a guitar player, you are a pretty good drummer,\u201d \u00a0but I kept at it. \u00a0During my freshman year in college, I also picked up a small, reedy sounding electric organ so I could go back in time and expand my musical education a little further while I was between bands. \u00a0I can read drum charts and rhythms pretty well, but have always been a little on the slow side with regard to sight reading \u2018musical\u2019 music. \u00a0While working out tunes from the song- books for George Harrison\u2019s <\/span>All Things Must Pass<\/span><\/i> album and The Guess Who\u2019s <\/span>Greatest Hits<\/span><\/i>, it finally dawned on me that the three note root of most guitar chords fall in predictable patterns on a keyboard. \u00a0To anyone who reads music, it doesn\u2019t sound like an \u2018Einsteinian moment\u2019, but for me, it cleared away a lot of the fog in the mystical connection between guitar and keyboards. \u00a0It also helped me in the \u2018figuring out songs to show the band\u2019 department which I put to work in my next band Knockdown.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It was actually a keyboard player who got me into Knockdown (who were at the time billed as Cloudy and Cool). \u00a0I had hung a few signs around the NMU campus (\u201cdrummer looking for band\u201d) and the first guy who called was a keyboard player who saw my sign while putting up one of his own. \u00a0We jammed a couple of times and I was ready to tell him, \u201cwe probably need a guitar player and bass player if this is going to work.\u201d \u00a0Before I got to say it, \u00a0he showed up at my house with both in tow. \u00a0Apparently this was going to be our audition to get into their band. \u00a0We played some tunes and when we finished up, the two new guys helped the keyboard player pack up his stuff and carry it out to his car (which I thought was awful nice of them). \u00a0When he drove off, they came back for their gear and said, \u201cwe have a keyboard player, but we need a drummer. \u00a0His mother works at the airbase (K.I.Sawyer) and put him in touch with us. \u00a0When we found out he had a drummer, we agreed to give him a listen so we could meet you. \u00a0Do you \u00a0want the job?\u201d \u00a0This was an unexpected turn of events but Ray and Lee laid it out in the simplest possible terms: \u00a0\u201cWe don\u2019t need him, we need you. \u00a0He isn\u2019t very good so you are a long way from having a band.\u201d \u00a0Signed, sealed, and delivered! \u00a0I was now in Cloudy and Cool (soon to be renamed Knockdown). \u00a0My only regret was loaning keyboard guy my copy of the <\/span>All Things Must Pass\u2019 <\/span><\/i>songbook. \u00a0I never saw either of them again, but it was a small price to pay for finding what could only be described as an \u2018instant band\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I can\u2019t actually remember the name of the keyboard player who was already in the band when I joined because it was only a matter of months before he got transferred to the US Air Force Base in Thule, Greenland. \u00a0I put up signs around campus (again), only this time I was looking specifically for a keyboard player. \u00a0I prayed that the keyboard guy with my Harrison book wouldn\u2019t call and was quite relieved when one David Waters, pre-med student, called and asked if he could join at least as a fill in. \u00a0He didn\u2019t want to commit to a full time gig as he was one busy student (it must have worked as he did indeed end up Dr. David Waters (brother of Ontonagon\u2019s own Jim Waters)), but we were happy to have him for at least a semester. \u00a0If he couldn\u2019t make a gig, we also found a high school kid named Nick Spina who played the jobs Dave couldn\u2019t, but we kept looking for someone who could do it full time.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0About a year into my tenure as the bandleader (not being in the Air Force and being a member of the Musician\u2019s Union (AF of M Local 213), I was able to book the gigs and pay the dues for the band), our guitar player Ray unearthed a keyboard player named Rich Patterson. \u00a0We met him in a dark, dank walk in basement where the band he was playing with rehearsed. \u00a0I remember this well because it was the one and only time I ever played \u00a0yellow, see-through acrylic Ludwig drums (the kind John Bonham made famous with \u00a0Led Zeppelin). \u00a0\u00a0This was also the first time I jammed with someone playing a Hammond B-3 since my second paying gig with Rex the B-3 player a couple of years earlier. \u00a0It went so well that when we asked Rich if he wanted to join, he said , \u201ccan we put my organ in your truck and get out of here before the rest of the band shows up?\u201d \u00a0Rich played harmonica and did background vocals as well, so we were very happy to have solved our organist du jour problem with a new permanent member.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I don\u2019t remember the exact time frame, but at some point during my second year in the band, Rich had a serious medical problem that essentially paralyzed his left side. \u00a0We used Nick as a fill in for a few gigs and when Rich got back on his feet, he said he wanted to keep gigging. \u00a0He was walking with a cane and could only play with one hand but we had to give it a try. \u00a0I give him a lot of credit because his condition was serious enough for him to be discharged from the Air Force but he never missed a job once he came back. \u00a0Of course, we used to kid him that the cane was just a prop so he could get us to lug his B-3 and Leslie speaker cabinet around, but one handed Rich was still a better keyboard player than some I have heard with two hands and two feet available.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I still regret that I lost track of Rich when Knockdown disbanded. \u00a0He and his wife came to see Sledgehammer the weekend we recorded \u2018Live at the Four Seasons\u2019 in the spring of 1975. \u00a0\u00a0He was still using a cane to get around and mentioned he was trying to get a band together. \u00a0\u00a0I wished him well but that was the last time I saw him. \u00a0\u00a0I count myself privileged to have been able to play in a band with someone who was so very talented. \u00a0More than that, Rich showed me how one can face adversity with grace and good humor. \u00a0After he was paralyzed, I used to tune the band with the organ so he wouldn\u2019t have to make an extra trip to the band stand. \u00a0We also helped him up and down if there were stairs to navigate. \u00a0At one gig, he missed the last step and went sprawling to the dance floor. \u00a0We helped him up and he looked around the room, smiled broadly and announced, \u00a0\u201c If you think that was good, \u00a0wait until I actually have a drink!\u201d \u00a0I haven\u2019t played in a band with a keyboard player since and maybe that is by design. \u00a0How could you top a guy like Rich? \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 TOP PIECE VIDEO – A newer, live version of Albert Hammond’s pop hit of the early 1970s. \u00a0When my band Knockdown had to employ a fill in keyboard player, it was my job to show them the basic organ riff to this song. \u00a0I often wonder what they thought about having the drummer teach them the organ parts to songs. \u00a0For some strange reason, this just wasn’t a song most were familiar with.<\/span>