The Barbarians came together at Provincetown in the summer of 1964, according to an interview they gave a couple years later. Near the end of October, they performed in the TAMI Show at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. The feature film of this event, released the following year, was a rock milestone.
The Barbarians performed through the United States and Canada. While on tour, one of their greatest pleasures was staying in four separate rooms.
A full band bio. is certainly in order, and I hope to have the chance to put one together. Meanwhile, here is a reminiscence that I enjoyed reading more than a dozen years ago.
"MOULTY, THE DRUMMER, had only one hand and wore a hook to help him play drums.
"'It was the early 1960s and they had their hit "Are You a Boy or Are You a Girl",' [James] Arslanian said. 'Moulty had hair to the middle of his back and as the band was walking from the dressing room to the stage, [in the ballroom at Mountain Park in Holyoke, MA] people were taunting him. The band started playing a few numbers, and Moulty and his drums were positioned above the three other guys, who were in the front of the stage.
"'Somebody in the crowd had brought some snow in. They started throwing little bits of snow at Moulty. He stopped playing and told them to stop, that it's not good for his drums. He could see who was throwing the snow, though most people in the crowd couldn't. The second time it happened, Moulty did the same thing, told the guy to stop.
"'But on the third time, he threw down his sticks. He ran and jumped off the stage and went after the guy. The three others did, too. The cops broke it up. It happened right in the middle of the dance shell.'" -- Chris Hamel, "The Scene," Springfield, MA, Union-News, Franklin edition, February 25, 1988, p. W-2 cols. 1-5.
Moulty and the Barbarians, as they have sometimes been called, performed as part of the "Royalty of Rock 'n' Roll" concerts in the summer of 1995; and a later article, that I'm aware of but can't get my hands on just yet, seems to report that they were still performing with some success the following May.
The Barbarians
- Bruce Benson
- Jerry Causi
- Jeff Morris
- Moulty Moulton*
* Sources are far from consistent as to how they give the names of the members of the Barbarians.
Barbarians
The Barbarians (LP, Laurie, n.d. [1965])
Side One:
- Are You a Boy or Are You a Girl, Mr. Tambourine Man, House of the Rising Sun, Marie Elena, Bo-Diddley, Memphis Tennessee.
Side Two:
- What the New Breed Say, Take It or Leave It, I'll Keep on Seeing You, Linguica, Susy Q, I've Got a Woman.
album review by Nancy Neon and Alan Lewis
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