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Date Posted: 07:34:11 03/31/00 Fri
Author: LUXTON
Author Host/IP: spider-wb042.proxy.aol.com / 205.188.192.167
Subject: EXERPT FROM "COLOURED LIGHTS CAN HYPNOTIZE"



It’s a little blurry exactly when I first knew I wanted to be in a band, or had the ability even to consider it, but one certain incident may have cemented my ultimate fate. Grade Eight...Luxton School...music class with Miss Milgrom. Edd Smith and I were just about best friends, hanging out together almost constantly. He already had a cheap electric guitar and amp. We had auditioned for the Amateur Show, a local Winnipeg television deal, dreaming of winning and being asked back to perform again the following week. Our audition had deemed that we spend a certain amount of time in preparation. During those early “rehearsals” we worked up duet versions of several numbers. Edd and I, having learned these several numbers anyway, privately approached Miss Milgrom one day and asked her if we could perform something in front of the whole room during our next music class. We ended up performing “This Time” by Troy Shondell and “What’d I Say” by Ray Charles. I played piano and sang, and Edd sort of “played along” on electric guitar. Members of the whole class, particularly the girls, were seemingly very impressed...the die was cast for me right there that afternoon in
Grade Eight at Luxton School. I knew what I WANTED to do, yet actually accomplishing any of it was several years away at this point.
Edd was constantly turning me on to “ things rock and roll” that I otherwise might have missed. I must give Edd Smith a HUGE amount of credit and gratitude concerning what he did for me during the most malleable period of my adolescence. I might never have heard “Silver City” by the Ventures were it not for Edd. I might never have been interested engough to send money orders to England for Shadows albums on vinyl during ‘62,’63, and ‘64 were it not for Edd. Once in Grade Nine (our last year at Luxton) his knowledge of and enthusiasm for the rock and roll world hit me square in the face.
Shortly after Winnipeg had first gotten Channel Twelve from Pembina, North
Dakota, Edd and our mutual friend Tom Laszlo started talking about the coming D-Day...I had no idea what they meant, nor that they were referring to “DEE” Day...
they were talking about the imminent appearance of Joey Dee and the Starliters on American Bandstand to lip sync something on Channel Twelve at four thirty on a Friday afternoon. All week long at school, I looked forward to that few minutes of black and white television history. Since the single of Peppermint Twist peaked on the Billboarad chart in January of 1962, this “magic week” of anticipation leading up to DEE day must have occured during the winter of 1961/1962. Edd Smith nurtured the seeds that radio had already planted in the head of a North End kid several years eariler.
Edd and I made another Amateur Show appearance several months after the first one. This time we had a drummer with us, a school friend named Francis Kostiuk. He had a great set of drums and somehow we ended up on television, just the three of us, doing Dion Di Mucci’s “The Wanderer”. As memory serves me, we rocked pretty well this time. I was still delivering the Winnipeg Tribune six days a week at this point, and I remember some of the younger girls who lived with their parents on my paper route commenting and giggling about my singing. I was about twelve or thirteen at this time, and very shy of girls. I found out quickly what power lurked there in the ability to get up and sing a few tunes, even stuff you hadn’t written yourself. The Beatles hadn’t happened yet, but I was already sold hook, line and sinker on the idea of being a pop singer for a living.
I admired Edd, always thought he was cool. He knew about stuff I didn’t. He knew all about the Shadows and Hank Marvin. He knew that Brian “Licorice” Locking was their new bass player in the movie and on the album of Summer Holiday. He turned me on to my all time favourite Shadows instrumental, “Round and Round”. The only places this cut appears are on the Summer Holiday soundtrack and in the eight disc box set from EMI Europe mentioned earlier. Edd had a tape recorder. Edd had a Silvertone electric guitar and some kind of compatible amp. Edd was the one who showed me how to hook a Di Armond violin pickup directly to the soundboard in the back of an upright piano so I could play any of the Community Club uprights through Derek’s Fender amp. I spent countless hours at his house on Cathedral near Scotia, several times seeing things on his family’s television set that are indelibly stamped into my memory. You see, the Smiths were receiving Channel Twelve and at my house we were not. Channel Twelve brought American Bandstand into Winnipeg and it was the only station broadcasting it. Many, many days right after four we’d rush to Edd’s house and tune in Bandstand at 4:30. I saw many soulful black singers on American Bandstand at Edd’s place...even though they were merely lyp syncing their hits, it gave me a chance to associate some of these other worldly voices with the faces that harboured them. The lead singer of one of the hot black girl groups of the day (perhaps the Chiffons, perhaps the Marvelettes) told Dick Clark that Ray Charles had been a huge influence on her. Forever after that I paid more attention to Ray Charles. I was motivated to get some of his LP’s, most notably the What’d I Say album on Atlantic. I still love that picture on the cover where you see this beautiful old AK 47 reflected in Brother Ray’s glasses. I really got into that whole album as a fairly young kid. What a great crash course it is for soul and blues.
I still regularly play Rockhouse, Roll With My Baby, That’s Enough, which I later recorded myself with one of the Raelets singing on it, My Bonnie, and the long version of What’d I Say. The title cut is truly a masterpiece. When it all breaks down between Part One and Part Two and the girls start answering Ray with just drums and handclaps going behind them, it’s truly invigorating... Hallmark moment.
So indirectly, even my affinity toward Ray Charles is traceable back to Edd Smith. When I left the Deverons to join the GW, the guy I really missed most was Edd, because I had known him far earlier in life than I’d known the other three.
Edd, I thank you again.
Cut to January or February of 1965, Winnipeg Arena. Gerry and the Pacemakers appeared there during the height of the British Invasion. We Deverons somehow lucked out and got to be the number one act on the show that night. We were first, then came the Guess Who (Bachman, Peterson, Kale, Ashley & Allen), then G & T P. There were one inch thick guard ropes around the front of the stage. The pre show hype had been tremendous. The crowd was at a fever pitch and although we went on a good hour and a quarter before the headliners, things were still pretty electric for us. We did our show, then the GW came on. As usual they were bloody great. Can’t remember what numbers they did that night, but they were at the top of their game at this point. I hung around outside the Pacemakers’ dressing room door for quite a while, waiting for them to appear and perform. Finally, shortly before they were to go on, Gerry Marsden came out of the dressing room. I had a large piece of white cardboard, which I think had his bootprint on it for some reason. I was star struck seeing him in person...I had sung several of his songs on stage innumerable times. I held up the cardboard and asked him politely if he would sign it. He laughed, smirked at one of his other guys, and said “What...do you want me to PISS ON IT TOO...?” He kept right on walking toward the stage. Bye bye Burton. I was crushed. I told myself later that night that if I were ever in the position where someone wanted an autograph or a reasonably small amount of my time I would not refuse. I never wanted to make anyone else feel the way that Gerry Marsden had made me feel at 17 yrs. old. He may not have been so nice to me but they sure put on a hell of a show that night...trouble was, the entire crowd hardly heard a note. The screaming was all part of the British Invasion and the frenzy that the Beatles had first instigated. Gerry and the Pacemakers may have had “How Do You Do It” initially before the Beatles onslaught, but it was an isolated incident. It really was the Beatles that created that mythical “British Scene” about which we all wondered and fantasized. The competition (actually PERCEIVED competition...this “Who will beat the Beatles next?” stuff was largely invented and fueled by the media) factor was played to the hilt between the British bands, but none of this grading them against each other seemed to occur until the Beatles had first laid down their incredible yardstick, by which all subsequent groups would soon be judged. You have to go pretty far to beat something like “A Hard Day’s Night”.

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Replies:

[> Re: EXERPT FROM "COLOURED LIGHTS CAN HYPNOTIZE" -- Roast Beef, 09:00:39 03/31/00 Fri [1] (cma.cma-oh.org/198.30.149.2)

These excerpts are fascinating. I've always been interested in the real life stories that make up our modern-day heroes and idols. It brings a true touch of humanity and association to the legends most of us could never hope to experience in the flesh. I've often been disillusioned after learning what these "larger-than-life" figures are like as real people. The Elvis Costello enlightenment being the most recent one. I feel as though I'm better off not knowing what these folks are really like. But here in the case of you, Burton, I find myself better of KNOWING what you are really like. Thanks for the continuing excerpts.


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[> Re: EXERPT FROM "COLOURED LIGHTS CAN HYPNOTIZE" -- Brit, 11:14:35 03/31/00 Fri [1] (spider-wg081.proxy.aol.com/205.188.196.56)

You know Burt, that's what I find so great about you...your appreciation and knowledge of pop music. I've heard of so many artists that want to distance themselves from the type of music that made them a lot of money...like they're too "deep" for it. But not only are you a creator of great pop songs but also a fan as well. Thanks for another great instillation from your autobiography. I feel like I'm reading a serialized book. Can't wait for the next chapter. Oh btw...so sorry to hear about how rude Mr.Marsden was to you. He always seemed to be such a nice chap...never can tell, can you?


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