{"id":792,"date":"2016-11-15T16:25:00","date_gmt":"2016-11-15T16:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=792"},"modified":"2016-11-15T16:28:36","modified_gmt":"2016-11-15T16:28:36","slug":"from-the-vaults-dwight-chicago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=792","title":{"rendered":"From the Vaults: Dwight Chicago"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Okay. \u00a0His name was really Dwight Kater, but every time I listen to the band Chicago, I think back to Dwight, therefore, Dwight Chicago is how I remember him. \u00a0\u00a0When Dwight and his family first came to Marquette, they lived in the faculty housing units on Center St. two blocks from my house and halfway to my buddy Nick Gorski\u2019s home on Garfield Ave. \u00a0By the time I met Dwight, Nick and I had been friends and band mates (as in \u2018JH and HS band\u2019 not \u2018rock band\u2019) for a couple of years. \u00a0We weren\u2019t even in the same musical sections (I was a drummer, Nick played baritone, and Dwight was a flautist), but we chummed around for a few months early in high school until the Katers moved to another part of town.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I haven\u2019t even seen Dwight in over forty five years, so why is he embedded deep enough in my memory banks that I forever link him with Chicago? \u00a0It is because Dwight was the person that introduced me to the band, Chicago. \u00a0It wasn\u2019t a huge, \u201cMan, you have to hear this band,\u201d moment. \u00a0We stopped by Dwight\u2019s apartment one day and he just happened to pull out the first Chicago double album for us to listen to while we visited. \u00a0<\/span>Chicago Transit Authority <\/span><\/i>was both the name of the band and the album (Chicago later shortened their name when the real CTA threatened legal action) and from the first track, I was hooked. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0There were other bands dabbling in the genre referred to as \u2018horn rock\u2019 (like Blood Sweat and Tears, Chase, \u00a0and the Ides of March), and I always liked the music they made, but somehow Chicago put a different twist on the concept. \u00a0As the first three tracks played (<\/span>Introduction, Does anybody really know what time it is? <\/span><\/i>and<\/span> Beginnings<\/span><\/i>), I totally lost track of time and space. \u00a0My next trip to The Sound Center (my favorite music store on Third Street, now occupied by a bagel outlet) was for the expressed purpose of buying this double album. \u00a0This little episode got me thinking about how many occasions I could remember when I heard certain bands and songs the first time with similar impact. \u00a0It didn\u2019t really surprise me that many of these instances came from my friends and neighbors.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I can attribute my love of The Doors to Jeff Lewis. \u00a0Like Dwight, Jeff had a family member who worked at NMU and we met in confirmation class in eighth grade. \u00a0Jeff was a piano player and when I found out he had a small electric organ, we started making plans to play together. \u00a0The first time he lugged the organ over to my house, we tried in vain to wire it up to my stereo extension speakers but neither of us had the electronic IQ at this point to make it work. \u00a0We played <\/span>Summer in the City<\/span><\/i> by the Lovin Spoonful over and over because it had a nice organ and drum part. \u00a0Jeff\u2019s organ wasn\u2019t very loud so we just sang without microphones. \u00a0We ended up doing the rest of our playing together at Jeff\u2019s house in Shiras Hills \u00a0(one of the tonier new neighborhoods in south Marquette). \u00a0The Lewis home had a baby grand piano in the family room so I would end up leaving my drums there for a couple of weeks at a time. \u00a0It was a long bike ride from my house to Jeff\u2019s but I spent a lot of time there. \u00a0\u00a0Jeff and I pooled our money and shared custody of The Doors first eponymous album, at least until he scratched the daylights out of the first two minutes of <\/span>The End<\/span><\/i> which made it real hard for me to play along to.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The music at Jeff\u2019s became more of an afterthought. \u00a0\u00a0Jeff was somewhat of a lady\u2019s man, so our music sessions became shorter and shorter as his female admirers began showing up and dragging us here and there. \u00a0I can even thank Jeff for my first blind date as he talked me into a bowling trip at the Four Seasons Lanes and Lounge without mentioning we were meeting one of his girl friends there who insisted that he bring a date for her friend. \u00a0Music at Jeff\u2019s house came to a screeching halt when I showed up one day unannounced to pick up my drums and found him jamming with a couple of guys he was going to be in a band with. \u00a0Not only was there a stranger banging on my drums, he was left handed and had messed up my carefully aligned mounted tom bracket to make it easier for him to play. \u00a0Even though it took me twenty five years to finally replace the album with the ruined track, I still think of Jeff when I play <\/span>The Doors<\/span><\/i>. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Not all of my musical introductions came from guys I played music with. \u00a0Nick and I developed what I can only call and eclectic taste in music. \u00a0Listening sessions at his house included such varied fare as Captain Beefheart, Cream, The Who, Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, as well as my first exposure to the <\/span>Sgt.Pepper<\/span><\/i> era Beatles. \u00a0Another good friend Mitch (we hung out together so much that we called each other\u2019s parents Ma and Pa II) put me on to Three Dog Night (<\/span>Live at the Forum<\/span><\/i>), CCR (he had the first four CCR albums before I ever saw them in the stores), The Rolling Stones (<\/span>Sticky Fingers<\/span><\/i> was a favorite) and Pink Floyd (<\/span>Dark Side of the Moon<\/span><\/i>). \u00a0Jim Soderberg put me in touch with a Texas band via San Francisco called Fever Tree that I still like a lot. \u00a0When my neighbor Louie Lundquist was working at learning the guitar and collecting Big Daddy Roth hot rod models, he also amassed quite a collection of Beach Boys 45s that he let me borrow from time to time. \u00a0My next door neighbor Harold used to loan me his sister\u2019s Dave Clark Five records and would always remind me that Dave Clark was a singing drummer. \u00a0Naturally, I decided that I too, would become a singing drummer.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0One of my most memorable \u2018first encounters\u2019 with a new album came during the summer I was the fill in rehearsal drummer with the guys who eventually became The Self-Winding Grapefruit. \u00a0Near the end of one of our practice sessions, Mike McKelvey (who would be a founding member of the fabled Marquette \/ Ann Arbor band Walrus) stopped by with a new album he had recently picked up in California. \u00a0He said, \u201cYou gotta hear this band!\u201d and dropped the phonograph needle on <\/span>Purple Haze, <\/span><\/i>the opening track of the first Jimi Hendrix Experience album <\/span>Are You Experienced? \u00a0<\/span><\/i>I remember hearing this song in my head for a few weeks until The Sound Center finally got a shipment of this LP. \u00a0I was just learning to play the tracks off the album when I attended my first legal high school dance that fall (having snuck into more than a few in JH courtesy of my sister). \u00a0I smiled broadly when McKelvey’s pre-Walrus band (whose name escapes me today) launched into <\/span>Purple Haze<\/span><\/i>. \u00a0I took great pride in telling everyone around me everything I knew about the band, song and album because I was one of a handful of people in Marquette who had the album at that time. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Music tastes change and<\/span> there is always something new coming around the bend. \u00a0When I first started to learn to play rock and roll drums, I spent time learning songs by playing along with 45s from the Top Forty. \u00a0When I progressed in to LPs, the material I was learning became more advanced and the types of music I was listening to grew exponentially. \u00a0When I began playing with other musicians, my learning curve took another jump. \u00a0Throughout the process of learning to play the drums, I realized that I liked many types of music. \u00a0I don\u2019t get to play as much as I would like to these days, but even when I do the occasional fill in gig with Easy Money, \u00a0I still learn something new at every gig. \u00a0So thank you, Dwight (Chicago) Kater and everyone else who has shared the gift of music over the years. \u00a0It has been a fifty year labor of love and as long as there is music to be heard out there, I won\u2019t ever be bored.<\/span><\/p>\n

Top Piece Video – Speaking of The Dave Clark Five and singing drummers . . .