FIRST GIG
AS THE NEW YEAR ROLLED IN, I got to thinking about how
many years I've been playing music professionally and thought I'd take
you on a quick stroll down "Memory Lane."
I guess the first time I made some money playing music dates back to September 16, 1966. That's the night I made my professional debut at the Cameo in Decorah, Iowa.
It was with Larry Crandall and two or three other musicians. I'm not even sure what we called ourselves then . . . it was either the Nob Prairie Boys or the Runaways. (It was a couple years before we were known as the Rubber Band and were playing regularly as the house band at Matters Ballroom in Decorah.)
Nevertheless, I was using a toy organ with a small mic attached. The wheezing of the organ was almost as loud as the notes it was producing. The Cameo was a "subterranean" bar/club that you needed to walk down a steep flight of stairs from street level to enter.
I remember the lighting as being dim and hazy with lots of neon reds and blues. And needless to say it was smoky, and I recall it being a bit of a rough joint - especially for a 15-year-old kid.
(As I was writing this I got curious, so I took a break to find that old, toy organ. I found it tucked away in a closet. I took it down, blew the dust off and plugged it in. It still actually works and wheezes as loud as it did some 50 years ago!)
Doug's toy EMCEE organ still works!
I guess the first time I made some money playing music dates back to September 16, 1966. That's the night I made my professional debut at the Cameo in Decorah, Iowa.
It was with Larry Crandall and two or three other musicians. I'm not even sure what we called ourselves then . . . it was either the Nob Prairie Boys or the Runaways. (It was a couple years before we were known as the Rubber Band and were playing regularly as the house band at Matters Ballroom in Decorah.)
Nevertheless, I was using a toy organ with a small mic attached. The wheezing of the organ was almost as loud as the notes it was producing. The Cameo was a "subterranean" bar/club that you needed to walk down a steep flight of stairs from street level to enter.
I remember the lighting as being dim and hazy with lots of neon reds and blues. And needless to say it was smoky, and I recall it being a bit of a rough joint - especially for a 15-year-old kid.
(As I was writing this I got curious, so I took a break to find that old, toy organ. I found it tucked away in a closet. I took it down, blew the dust off and plugged it in. It still actually works and wheezes as loud as it did some 50 years ago!)
Doug's toy EMCEE organ still works!
In the audience that night for my " professional debut" was my
mother and my piano teacher - both all "fancied up" and looking
decidedly out of place! Incidentally both are still with us - my piano
teacher will turn 100 on February 2nd; and my mother (who still
practices law in West Union, Iowa) is 39 and holding.
Other than my mom and piano teacher being there, I don't remember a whole lot about that night except I do recall the bass player's dad playing "the bones" - a couple pieces of wood he held in one hand and rhythmically rattled to the beat of the music.
Oh yes, I do remember I took home $12 - about the same as I make nowadays at the gigs!
Other than my mom and piano teacher being there, I don't remember a whole lot about that night except I do recall the bass player's dad playing "the bones" - a couple pieces of wood he held in one hand and rhythmically rattled to the beat of the music.
Oh yes, I do remember I took home $12 - about the same as I make nowadays at the gigs!
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