The Generations' Story
Before I joined The Generations, Doug Latislaw and I had known each other for about a year. We played together in a "pickup" band, formed by Rick Randle (of "The Man-Dells," "The Other Four" and later "The Brain Police") called "Me and The Others", which only played a couple of minor gigs around the South Bay area.
It was common practice, at that time, to be in a number of bands at once. I played with Doug and Rick on and off. There was enough space between paying gigs, along with plenty of spare musicians, that it allowed some flexibility between one band and another!
Doug was playing drums with The Generations when I received a frantic call from him shortly before Christmas of 1965. The Generations bass player, Errol Lisonbee, had cut one of his fingers off while working at a Christmas tree lot, and they were in a bind. They needed a bass player, but, if they could find a "spare" drummer while Errol healed, Doug could play bass. I sat in on drums and after a few gigs was asked to join the group. After some other personnel cahanges, on Errol's return Doug moved over to lead guitar, and that set the lineup for the new four-piece version of The Generations.
I hadn't done a whole lot of singing (other than background parts) in any band at that time and I was very self-conscious about the possibility. I recall one night at a practice in Doug's living room where I had gotten up the gall to ask if I could sing a song. It was the Beatles version of "Kansas City," which Rick Randle had sung in "Me and the Others." I had a go of it and before I knew it, became the lead singer of the group. I really had no idea that I could sing lead until that night. I was sure that I was going to fail miserably, but I surprised myself as much as I surprised everyone else.
Now, keep in mind that we were only 14 years old around this time. During the first few months with this new line-up, The Generations made quite a splash in the San Diego area, starting with the first place prize in the KCBQ Starmaker Contest, which was a Battle of the Bands held at the annual Custom Car Show at the San Diego Community Concourse in March of 1966. We won a big trophy and a recording session at Audio Recorders on Fifth Avenue in Hillcrest. Although very archaic by today's standards, Audio Recorders was a state of the art recording studio, for San Diego anyway! We got all dolled up in our band uniforms (cheap suits and clip-on ties) and proceeded to record a couple of Beatles hits ("Slow Down" and "Nowhere Man") live, direct to disk, MONO! (This session is highlighted on the ultra-rare CD titled "Some Of The Best and Worst of The Generations - Volume 1").
One of the things The Generations were known for was their "showmanship." This could only be explained as some wild, weird, "dancing" that was performed mainly by the guitarists and bass player in the band. If you weren't singing into a microphone, you needed to be MOVIN'! All the way across the stage, if possible! I remember Doug, Chuck and Errol having REALLY long guitar chords hooked up to their amps in order to allow for maximum "showmanship!" I don't recall doing a lot of "showmanship" myself, other than occasionally twirling my drumsticks or throwing them up in the air and catching them, mainly because I was keeping my four limbs busy playing the drums and singing lead on most of the songs. The funny thing is, in order to capture the "essence" of our live performance during the recording process at our first-ever recording session, Doug, Chuck and Errol were instructed (by our managers, Wayne Collins and Dwight Squibb) to remove their shoes (so as to not make too much extraneous noise) so the "showmanship" could be performed while we were recording! Keep in mind that we were wearing our uniforms as well! At the time I had a brief glimpse of the ridiculousness of this escapade, but I recall blowing it off, thinking that we were in the BIGTIME now! We were making a RECORD and we could do whatever the hell we wanted!
Armed with a few acetate pressings of the disc of "Nowhere Man" and "Slow Down," we set out to conquer the world, beginning with the greater San Diego area! With the success achieved at the Starmaker Contest, we had some recognition around town that afforded our managers some ammunition to market the group and get some real, paying jobs at dances and parties all over San Diego. I'd say most of the jobs in 1966 were at either high school or junior high dances along with a good portion of gigs at local Navy bases. How much money did we make? Well, first of all we had two managers. They each took a cut. How much? Well, how about 15%… EACH!!! Yup. That's what we paid them for their guidance (and transportation!). Which isn't as bad as it seems until you find out that, in most cases, we were getting paid about $50 to $60 a night for a 4 hour gig! That worked out to roughly $10 a night, each. BUT... We were playing a LOT!... At least two nights a week, if not more.
We also practiced at least two nights a week. Mondays and Thursdays were Practice Nights. Occasionally, we would practice on Saturday afternoons as well. There's probably some kind of child labor laws that would ban this nowadays, but we were digging it! $10 a night was doing OK for a 14-year-old in 1966! I always had money that I spent mostly on records and dates (when we weren't playing!). We were quite the popular guys at our school and at many other schools. I remember Errol used to keep a stash of his own autographs in his wallet, on little pieces of paper, and he would pass them out to all of the girls at school. The rest of us thought it was going to his head a bit, and made note of his less-than-great bass playing and singing capabilities.
After a few more wins at a few local Battles of the Bands, we were feeling pretty confident. Doug's uncle, an executive for Pepsi Cola, heard us play during a family visit to Chula Vista and we ended up being invited to play as a non-competing guest band at the Pepsi Cola Big Boss Battle of the Bands at the Hollywood Palladium on the famous Sunset Strip. This was going to be a big show that "Sonny and Cher" were going to attend to crown the winners of the big battle.
This event was recorded on film by Dwight, but no one knows the whereabouts of this film today. Too bad because it was REAL funny! We opened the show, playing "Slow Down." Chuck, Doug and Errol did anything but slow down. They were attacked by the "showmanship" bug, and they were flying all over the stage… REALLY fast!!! Our arrangement of this song had a stop-time portion in the middle. Unfortunately, the stage manager didn’t know about this and when we stopped playing for a few seconds, he cued the curtain operator to close the curtains! The other three guys were so infected with "showmanship" that they were way out in front of the curtains. But since I was stuck behind the drums, I couldn’t move and it was time to start that song back up again! So, as we were going back into the song, the curtains were closing in front of me, blocking me off from view to the audience. This was kind of weird. I was playing right along with the band, but we couldn’t see each other! By time the stage manager cued the curtains open, we were finishing up the song… Just in time for our big Beatles-type bow. The last time I saw the film of this event, I nearly died laughing! It was hilarious to see Doug, Chuck and Errol flying all over that stage, and then have the curtains close on me! I’d LOVE to see that film again!
So this was in about May of 1966, and the band was getting better, we were getting more gigs and we were making some money. Not bad for a bunch of 14 year olds! While we were in Hollywood, Dwight made a quick trip in the "Hullabaloo" club across the street from the Hollywood Palladium. He wanted to see if there was any way for us to play there. It would sure look good in our marketing material! He walked into the club and came back out a few minutes later and told us that we were going to play there in a couple of weeks! We were excited as all hell! So a couple of weeks later, we played at the Hullabaloo. Next stop, "Pandora’s Box". It was a tiny little nightclub that sat on a traffic island between Sunset Blvd, Laurel Canyon Blvd and Crescent Heights Blvd. This spot later became famous as the place where the Sunset Strip Riots started. For us, it was yet another famous place that we could say we played. Another week or so later, we returned to Hollywood once again to play at Pandora’s Box. So now we had three major Hollywood venues on our resume, which looked real good to people that were booking bands in San Diego.
What should we do next? How about a tour?
The first of two Generations summer tours occurred during August of 1966. Dwight took a vacation in June, while he was away from his school teaching duties, and drove around Arizona, Utah, Nevada and back down through California, booking this "big-time" teenage band from San Diego. Come August, we started in El Centro, California at a club called "Poncho’s Teen Club", on the main drag of El Centro, then on to Yuma, Arizona. We then went to Prescott and Winslow, Arizona, then on to Saint George, Cedar City and Salt Lake City, Utah. From there we drove through Nevada (not playing anywhere in that hot place) and played our final show in Bishop, California. This was quite an experience for us, even though the places we played were not what we were used to in terms of attendance. But the desert teenagers were starved for entertainment! They loved us. They had never seen a live band like us. We were stars in places like Prescott and Winslow!
After recovering from the rigors of the road, we returned to our normal pattern of events. Back to school, playing the school dances and Navy bases, and competing in any Battle of the Bands that we heard of, and usually winning.
But all was not well musically.
On to PAGE THREE: The Generations Go Through Them Changes...
