Back during the mid to late '60's, a common activity that took place regularly were teen dances at the Rush County Fairgrounds Community Building. Live bands from around the area and sometimes from Ohio would come, set up on a makeshift stage on the south wall of same said building and begin playing music for Rush County youth to dance to. These dances normally began around 8 pm and last until 11pm. A usual turnout of around 100 to 150 was normal, and along with the presence of youth there was always the presence of local law enforcement as well.
I recall back in 1968 attending my first dance at the Community Building, presented by then hot tune am station WIBC-AM. DJ Jim Shelton emceed an Indianapolis band called "The Sons of Summer." They were actually a quite talented band of young men varying in age from their late teens to early 20's. Myself and a couple of friends attended, and as big a lover of rock music as I was back then, I was instantly hooked. For a buck and a half we were not only entertained by the band and Jim Shelton, but we got to watch various foxy ladies gyrating to the music that was obviously being played way too loud, but wouldn't have sounded as good if it had been turned down.
I was fortunate to see "The Sons" on several occassions, and even managed to get to know Jim Shelton on a personal basis thru another friend of mine who was quite a talented drummer. I eventually got to work for Jim on a few occassions by taking posters around Rush County and advertising for upcoming shows that he held. The pay wasn't much, a few dollars and free admission to the dances, but it was the music business, and at that time in my life, music was where I wanted to spend my life!
WSAI-AM out of Cincinnati held a couple of dances there, with several bands playing the three hours. I vividly remember a group called the Gory Oatly and a Cincy band called Love Train that had a gorgeous lead singer, and if memory serves me correctly, Love Train was the only band that played there that boasted a female lead singer.
Other times, the dances held were by more local groups, from Shelbyville or Connersville. One band that played innumerable times were the Chalets from Shelbyville. I got to know several members of the Chalets, Mike Davis, Rocket, Jack Hignite, and we became friends that always enjoyed seeing each other whenever they came to town to play.
Also back in 1968, Rushville itself had a few local bands trying to make a name for themselves. A couple were pretty much forgettable, namely Innovation and Care. One band, though, that really rocked and comprised solely of Rushville natives was Summer Heat. These guys were great! Another thing about the local bands was that they only charged a buck a head to get into their dances.
Summer Heat was comprised of lead singer Jay McGinnis, lead guitarist Mike Clarkson, bass guitarist Denny Dawson, and drummer Jim Smiley. All of them were well-known, popular teenagers and all very talented!
I remember at my second Summer Heat dance, they had a table set up in front of the stage with this huge speaker in front. Since I've never been a talented dancer at all having been blessed at birth with two left feet, I generally spent my time in front of that speaker listening to their music full bore! On this evening in question the band began playing their version of Jimi Hendrix's classic, Fire. As Jay belted out the words, I sat down on the speaker table and took my pipe out of my mouth and began blowing into the bowl of it, forcing this huge cloud of smoke up towards Jay and the band. If you've never seen anyone blow thru a tobacco smoking pipe backwards, it's quite a sight to behold. The amount of smoke resembles that of a small forest fire. It's huge, very blue looking, and yes, it really stinks like hell, too!
Anyway, Jay became so engrossed with this neat "special effect" that he and the band added a couple of extra rounds to the song, extending it way past its normal length. As soon as the song was over, the band took a break and Jay came down to talk to me.
He told me that he had seen me coming to the dances for a few months and was wondering who I was, so I introduced myself. The smoke was still hanging in the air and he laughed and told me how cool that had been to be singing a song called Fire with all that smoke unexpectedly filling the stage. When I told him that it just seemed right to do it when they started playing the song, he told me I had a good idea and asked me if I had anymore ideas the band might use.
What I didn't realize at that moment was how important an effect this band was about to have in my life for the next couple of years.
This was going to be the first of a great many nights spent with Summer Heat.
A lot of memorable nights....
to be continued.....
No comments:
Post a Comment