Ancient history
It was, I think, probably in the mid 70’s – I was working as kitchen help in the now defunct “Lenny’s Restaurant” in New Lebs with the brothers Bruce and Fred Maynard. I don’t remember the specific details of when and where, just that I was introduced by Bruce to a band he liked named Kansas. (Yes, THAT Kansas). I’m guessing it was their debut (self-titled) album or one of several releases prior to their breakout hit “Carry On My Wayward Son”. On first listen, their music didn’t appeal to me at all – too busy, complicated and dense. I was much more into the west coast folk rock scene at the time and, unimpressed, dismissed Kansas.
Fast forward a couple years. My friend and musical partner in crime Ronnie Morris and I had fled an oncoming New England winter, escaping south to Jacksonville, FL to seek our fame and fortune. Pickings were slim, and vague promises from a booking agent who’d previously offered to provide us with gigs and a place to crash hadn’t materialized. He apparently felt sorry for us though, because we did end up with a couple weeks’ of free room at a roach infested JAX motel dubbed ‘Sin City’. He’d reserved rooms for ‘Snow’ – another working band he managed – and they weren’t in town for the entire length of the lease. We scrounged for returnable bottles and cans on the streets to be able to buy a little food during those first days and shopped for gigs everywhere we could.
Through Ronnie’s considerable people skills, we got connected with the manager of a local club – the Other Place – who agreed to manage us, and he let us crash at his apartment in the Arlington section of town. When we weren’t out playing at some pizza joint or pub ourselves, we’d hang around at the OP and occasionally work the door on unusually busy nights. The OP became our base of operations and – in that way – we were able to put gas in Ronnie’s blue Datsun pickup and hit the local Pizza Hut for their all you can eat buffet. We socialized with many of the bands who came through town and played the club – some well know, some not so much. It was a big venue and very popular.
I’m recalling one particular afternoon – we were hanging around the apartment with a couple musician friends – both drummers. Rob was the drummer for the band ‘Snow’ for whom the Sin City rooms had originally been rented and Bruce played with Molly Hatchet, an up and coming southern rock outfit who had just signed with Epic Records. They were having a good natured disagreement about a drum outro in a song from Kansas’ then current release “Point of Know Return” called “Portrait – He Knew”. Unable to settle the dispute, one of them handed me $8 with instructions to go to a nearby music store to buy the LP. (That’s a long play vinyl record, for those of you who don’t know). When I returned, Rob and Bruce played the record repeatedly, pantomiming the drum break as they sat on the apartment living room floor, debating, laughing and sucking on a couple of (probably) Heinekens.
I don’t remember now which one ended up winning the dispute, but they eventually did settle it and went off somewhere, leaving the record for me as they left. I’d heard the song so many times by that point (no pun intended!) that I’d begun to like it, and over the ensuing days and weeks came to appreciate the rest of the music on PoKR and eventually much of Kansas’ back catalog.
Good memories… I lost track of a lot of friends and acquaintances after moving back to NY, but one day I noticed that Molly Hatchet was on tour and booked at a small showcase club in Rensselaer called the Hullabaloo, not far from my home. I went to their gig and surprised Bruce who remembered me from JAX. “What are you doing up here?!” I told him I lived there and we made some small talk. That was the last time our paths crossed. Bruce had continued success with Molly Hatchet for several years but passed in 2015.
thanks to a couple of drummers, Kansas became and is still one of my favorite bands.