The Generations' Story
Toward the end of 1966, Doug and Chuck and I were not real happy with Errol's playing and singing. We felt that he was not keeping up with the rest of us in terms of musicianship. Somehow, the word got out that we were looking for a replacement for Errol. Enter our old pal Rick Randle. Rick told us about a bass player that he had worked with for a short time in a band called "The Descendants." I had heard that his name was "Greg Yordy" and that he was a good bass player and an even better singer. It turns out his name was Greg Youtsey.
I first met Greg, who attended Chula Vista Junior High, at Chuck Pepitone’s house, where Chuck was working with Greg, showing him some of the songs that were in our repertoire. As I remember it, I don’t recall ever auditioning Greg for the band. I may be wrong about this (maybe Greg will clarify it), but I think we just took Rick’s recommendation to heart and just asked Greg to join. We trusted Rick. This became a bit of a sticky situation, as I recall since Dwight had become close friends with Errol. With the help of our second manager, Wayne Collins, we had arranged for the departure of Errol without Dwight’s prior knowledge. One reason we were concerned was that Dwight owned that valuable PA system that we were using. So in an effort to cover our bases, we purchased a new Fender Solid State PA system through Doug’s father, who worked at Finders Music, in downtown San Diego. This was just in case Dwight decided that he was going to leave because of our clandestine plan to boot Errol out of the group.
We had a gig at the YMCA in downtown San Diego. I think this may have been in November of 1966, but I may be off by a month or so (again, maybe Greg can clarify this). This was to be Errol's last night with the band. He was told during his ride home that we had found a new bass player. I think Doug was riding home from the gig with Wayne Collins and Errol. I recall Doug saying that Errol took the news "like a man" and understood the situation. This part is a bit hazy to me, but I think it was up to Chuck and myself to break the news to Dwight while he gave us a ride home. Dwight decided to stay with the group, and we blazed on into 1967!
Greg added a lot to the group. He was an excellent singer and he played bass AND keyboards. We were more able to branch out and experiment with more complicated music. Greg also had a neighbor named Jim Mcdonnell. Jim (aka "Jadu" and "Co") was a budding guitarist and had a particular fascination with blues music. He would accompany us to most of our gigs and help us with our equipment, but more importantly, he exposed us to some of the better blues bands and blues musicians of the time like Paul Buterrfield, John Mayall, Eric Clapton and Mike Bloomfield, to name a few. I feel Co’s contribution to the musical skills of The Generations was invaluable. We started to get serious about music and became much better players because of it.
In 1967, the pop music scene was about to go through a major renaissance. I got a clue that something was up when I saw The Beatles new "video" on the Ed Sullivan Show in early 1967. I heard something that I will never forget…. "Strawberry Fields Forever". This was like nothing I had ever heard before. The Beatles had been my favorite group since 1964, but this time they had outdone themselves. Little did I know that there was more to come. Suddenly, everything changed in April of 1967 when The Beatles released the "Sgt Pepper" album. The Generations had always played a large number of Beatles songs in our repertoire, but how the hell were we going to handle this stuff? The Beatles music had become very complex and very orchestrated. Were there any other local bands that would have the balls to try to play anything from this album? We didn’t know, but we gave it a shot. Before we knew it we were playing the opening three songs of the album at all of our gigs. This made us very popular at the local dances. We were playing a lot. To top it off, we decided to change our look and we went to a surplus store and bought some Navy jackets that, with a few little modifications, looked just like Nehru jackets. We were making a fashion statement and we were becoming more and more successful on the local scene.
By summer time, we were ready to plan a second tour. It was decided that this one was going to be longer, about 4 weeks long and we’d cover a lot more ground than we had the previous year. We enlisted "Co" to be our "Road Manager" for the tour and we hit the road again. Once again, Dwight made a family vacation out of his pre-tour booking trip. We also had some transportation help from Greg’s father "Big Frank" Youtsey. I think Big Frank accompanied us throughout Arizona, and Wayne Collins and our newly acquired photographer, Vic Cullinan, took over and joined us with their two sports cars in Saint George, Utah.
Our touring was done in Dwight’s pickup truck, which had a camper shell over the bed of the truck, towing a family-type travel trailer. We spent most of our nights in KOA campgrounds throughout the tour. A couple of us would ride with Dwight and two of us would ride with Big Frank (during the Arizona leg of the tour) and one each would ride with Wayne and Vic in their sports cars.
I recall one of the members of the band (not me, and I won’t say who) describing (very graphically) an episode that occurred between Flagstaff and Saint George where one "non-member", along with said band member, were riding in the back of the truck during our trip through Zion National Park. Mr. "non-member" felt himself coming down with a severe case of diarrhea and he and the "band member" were desperately trying to get Dwight’s attention to pull the truck over so he could relieve himself. Unfortunately, an intercom system that Dwight had installed between the back of the truck and the cab, wasn’t working. The back of the truck was also loaded with band equipment, so they had difficulty in accessing a point that they could bang on to get Dwight’s attention. Mr. "non-member" was left with no recourse other than to use a cardboard box as a "container."
Now… What to do with the box?
By this time the odor in the camper shell had become unbearable so Mr. "non-member" decided to toss the box out the back door of the camper. The "band member" told me the contents splattered all over the front of the trailer we were towing! The "band member" also told me that he swore to Mr. "non-member" that no one else would ever know about this, but the story was just too good. He had to tell! Now we all know!
One More Big Change...
In the early summer of 1970 Doug, Greg and I had decided to change our group from a 4-piece to a 3-piece by "inviting" Chuck to leave the group. He had gotten married and was working a full time job and things were not going well between the rest of us and Chuck’s wife, Dana. We all liked Chuck a lot, but Dana ended up being the "Yoko" of our band! She was with Chuck, always. At practice, at gigs, you name it. When it was suggested that Dana play the opening organ lick of "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida", we had had our fill.
After Chuck had left, we spent a good portion of the summer of 1970 at Greg's parents' house, rehearsing as a three-piece group. Crosby, Stills and Nash were at the top of the charts and we were doing a lot of their material along with a bunch of Buffalo Springfield songs, some Buddy Miles' tunes, as well as the usual smattering of our favorite Beatles' hits. We had decided to diversify a bit and Greg would play some keyboards, I would play some guitar and Doug would play drums on a few tunes. The experimentation was fun and I thought we sounded pretty good, but it was still a challenge to fill the musical hole that Chuck left.
Our debut gig as a three-piece group was at a park in Santee, The Santee Lakes, where we played along with a few other groups on the bed of a big flatbed truck. It was at this show that we had announced that we had changed the name of the band to "Stench" (the name "Stench" didn't seem to stick for long, though, and we went back to The Generations as soon as we noticed that people didn’t want any "Stench" at their dances and parties!). Also on the bill that day was a group called "Trilogy." They did some great versions of some Doors' songs and I think they did a couple of their original songs as well. Dwight Squibb, our old friend and former manager was managing Trilogy at this time. We had known of the guys in Trilogy from a few years before when they all played in a group called "The New Syennes."
In October of 1970, we went back to do some recording at Dwight's recording facility, Bonita Recording Studio. We recorded "Woodstock", "Long Time Gone" (by CSN), "Badge" (by Cream) and "Aimless Lady " and "Inside Looking Out" (by Grand Funk Railroad). Shortly after this recording session we got a call from Dwight who told us that our old friend Lonnie Napier (who I knew from around 1966 when he played in another South Bay band called "The Grand Union" and now (in 1970) worked for the famous DJ "Wolfman Jack" in LA) had come by and heard the tape that we recorded at his studio. Lonnie had taken a copy of the tape to LA and played it for a producer he knew. He had also taken a tape that Trilogy had recorded at Dwight’s. The way I remember it, Dwight told us that the producer had told Lonnie if he could get The Generations to play the original songs of Trilogy, he might have something to work with.
The Generations hook up with JB:
We had a meeting with the guys in Trilogy, John Brown (keyboards), Emmett Brown (guitar) and Charlie Peaks (drums), at Dwight's studio, heard the songs that they were talking about, and we decided that we would give it a go. Lonnie made arrangements to get some us some studio time at the Wolfman's studio in LA to record a few songs. After learning the tunes that John Brown had written, we decided that 3 pieces were not going to be enough, so John agreed to play keyboards at the session. To me, this really made the band sound "full" again. If I remember right, we recorded John's songs "Street Corner" and "Closed Doors" and also did "Southern Man", by Neil Young and "Aimless Lady" by Grand Funk Railroad.
I distinctly recall a problem with a high-pitched oscillation in the mixing board that was very annoying and could be heard through the entire recording from this session. Gary, the engineer was very apologetic about this, but it was a free session, so what could we do? I still have a copy of this tape.
The three of us in The Generations were so impressed with John's playing and what it did for the sound of the band that we asked him to join the group, and he did.
This was the birth of what was soon to be called "Tacoma," the band that evolved from - and ended - The Generations.