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The Generations Go Through Them Changes...
It was now the Summer of 1970. I was just out of high school (finally)... I had been playing drums in the same band, The Generations, since December of 1965 (a real feat in those days!). In the Spring of 1970 it was Doug Latislaw on guitar and vocals; Greg Youtsey on bass, keyboards, and vocals; Chuck Pepitone on guitar, keyboards and vocals; and myself on drums and vocals.
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," a name "borrowed" from some wheels that Greg had just gotten installed on his van. We had a slew of "Tacoma Wheels" bumper stickers that we chopped the "Wheels" off of and started pasting on all of our equipment.
Tacoma hooks up with Joe Harrelson:
Lonnie had played the tape that we made for his producer friend, Joe Harrelson (who, at the time was working as the Program Director for the Wolfman), and Joe liked what he heard. He and Lonnie came down to the "new" Brown house in Bonita (where we had put together a rehearsal space in the Brown's garage) to work on song arrangements for an upcoming session that Joe was planning. As I recall, this was in the fall of 1970. We played a bunch of original songs that John and Emmett had written along with a couple that I had written. Joe was a "slick" looking guy that reminded me of a used car salesman. I was skeptical about the direction he wanted this band to take (I think the other guys were skeptical as well), but I also knew we had NOTHING else going for us at the time. This was a chance to do more recording in LA, and that was exactly what I wanted to do.