Chris Currell Leaps from Question Mark & the Mysterians to Michael Jackson

                                                                  
                                                                         

                                                                            

Christopher Currell Remembers

Question Mark, Michael Jackson and Good Vibrations

 

Christopher Currell is one of Saginaw’s forgotten musical heroes. He is an incredible talent who learned the ropes from local icons including The Bossmen, Count & the Colony, The Excels, The Pack and the Caravans. The early years of rock & roll were spent in garages across the globe and Saginaw was no exception. At any one time you could find Butch Burden, Larry Wheatley, Bobby Balderamma, Pete Woodman, Clark Sullivan or Dick Wagner honing their skills in garages and backyard barbecues. This was the canvas in which Chris Currell honed his skills. He would grow, change and learn at a rapid pace, out lasting many of his compatriots with his keen intellect and spiritual base. He possesses an uncommon humility for an artist that has achieved international recognition. His meeting with Michael Jackson in 1985 proved to be prophetic. They became close friends and musical comrades until Jackson’s untimely death on June 25^th, 2009 as they were about to embark on the This Is It concert series.

  

Tell me about your influences in Saginaw that may have shaped your journey in music

I played in a lot of bands when I lived in Saginaw. My experiences playing in these bands prepared me

for becoming a professional musician. I was in junior high school when I had my very first musical influence, which led me to decide to play guitar and play in a band.  This was a Saginaw band called the Caravans. Another Saginaw band, which also influenced me was Count and the Colony. The sound of the electric guitar really grabbed me. It was magical to me!

 

You were with Question Mark & the Mysterians when Question Mark dismissed his original band and created a new type of music, a bit heavier. When did you get involved?

I do not remember the actual year I joined the band. I saw it as an opportunity to actually enter into the professional music industry and do professional recording. That experience was a bit shocking because I found out that the record company would not allow the band to play on the recordings. They only used their studio musicians. I did a lot of concert dates with Question Mark. Eventually the keyboard player left the band and it became a power trio. That is when the sound became heavy.

 

Was there a new cultural spirit that inspired your quest for other forms of music?

Yes, I really was inspired by how music could bring people together. In my early years, playing big concerts venues and festivals was very gratifying. But I had an epiphany playing a huge rock festival in Atlanta Georgia. I was still playing with Question Mark and the Mysterians as a power trio. Up to then, music had been like a big party for me. That night, I looked out at the huge crowd of 25,000 people and I realized…all these people were looking at me to tell them something. I had no idea about anything. Life was a big party and I was not taking responsibility for anything. I realized, I needed to re-evaluate myself and the purpose of my life. The next day I quit Question Mark. I began a personal quest to find out who I am and what life actually is. Of course this changed my music radically.

Who you inspired you?

Up to then, Michigan bands like The Bossmen, The Pack and the Amboy Dukes heavily influenced me musically. I then started expanding my music tastes. I was knocked out the first time I heard Cream. It was Eric Clapton’s playing that made me develop a vibrato on the guitar. Then along came Jimi Hendrix! He was a revelation for me! After that, the influences are a long list. The types of bands that I became interested in were progressive rock and rock fusion. This led to more Jazz fusion and eventually electronic and avant garde styles of music.

The list of guitarists that influenced me is just as long. Probably the most influential being Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix, Allan Holdsworth, Al Dimeola and Frank Gambale. The guitarist that influenced me the most though was John Mclaughlin. The musician that inspired me the most is Ravi Shankar.

When did you meet Michael Jackson?

It was in the summer of 1985 that I got a call from Michael Jackson. He had heard about me from the New England Digital company. They made a sophisticated computer based synthesizer called the Synclavier. I owned one. Michael had a huge Synclavier system. He called me on the phone and asked me if I would teach him how to use it. We finally scheduled a time where we could meet and begin my teaching. I went to his personal studio at his house on a Sunday morning. He introduced himself and we sat down in front of the Synclavier and began his first lesson.

 

What did you think of him?

He was very hospitable and polite. I liked him right away.

Did he hire you on the spot? Or did you have to go to several auditions?

Well, after three hours, I had taught Michael how to power up and boot up the Synclavier, call up his sound library and showed him how to call a sound down to the keyboard for him to play. He said “That’s all I can take for today, can you come back tomorrow for a session?” I said “sure!” I came back the next day and we worked on one of Michael’s songs. He wanted me to come back every day. Little did I know that this would be the beginning of the most interesting next four years of my life!

So if that was an audition, I guess I passed!

Did he give you a say in the music once you passed the audition?

He always had a say in the music but at the same time, he respected my input. He was very easy to work with.

What was your opinion of Michael as a singer?

Michael was a great singer! Totally professional! Singing was easy for him. In fact, he could also imitate different instruments with his voice as well.

What about his lyrics?

I always thought he wrote about interesting subjects. Obviously his lyrics connected with people as well as his singing.

A  musician – did he play various instruments; was he proficient?

His main instrument was his voice. But he was also very adept at playing percussion. He amazed me one when he started playing air guitar to Led Zeppelin music in his studio!

Did he prove to be helpful, to open doors so to speak and get better pay, residuals, contracts etc

My association with Michael changed my life completely. We became friends and he introduced me to many people. My phone was always off the hook with people calling wanting to do something with me. During the making of the “Bad” album, CBS records said I was their highest paid musician! I will always be grateful to him for helping me! People still call me for projects based on my work with Michael.

Michael had a great sound onstage in their live performances?

Absolutely! Michael was in the position to have the best of everything! We had the best musicians, the best singers, the best dancers as well as the best sound and lighting production crew. We took two Synclaviers on the “Bad” tour and they also contributed to the amazing sound onstage!

Did you play loud in concert?

I did not play too loud. I only played loud enough to feel the music properly. I am very conscious of protecting my hearing! But in front where Michael performed, the sound was bone crushing loud from all the front monitors and side fills! Michael always liked the music loud, in the studio and onstage!

How many shows did you do with Michael?

The “Bad” tour lasted about 16 months. We performed 123 concerts to 4.4 million fans across 15 countries.

 

Who was your road manager? Or did you have to lug your own equipment?

 

John Draper was the road manager for the “Bad” tour. I was playing 1.4 million dollars of gear just myself! There is no way I could have moved that equipment myself! Ha! Ha! This tour was the over the top and broke many world records…totally professional! I never saw the equipment until I walked on stage to perform! 

 

We had a huge road crew of about 150 people that set everything up…sometimes as many as 300 people! At the beginning of the “Bad” tour in, a 707 cargo jet was used completely filled to transport our equipment to Japan! Later in Europe, it took 43 semi trucks to move our equipment!

 

Tell me about your life in another country?

 

I currently live in Japan. I fell in love with the culture when I first came to Japan with Michael. After working with Michael, I continued to travel to Japan for music production work. I was living 50 percent of the time in the states and the 50 percent of the time in Japan. About six and a half years ago, I decided to permanently move to Japan. I currently have 14 albums out and performing my own music. I also am researching how sound can expand consciousness and awareness. I have my house and recording studio in the mountains and forest above the ocean overlooking Mt. Fuji. I like nature and it is a great creative environment.

 

What was your impression of the seventies/eighties scene? Meet any of the big players?

 

I grew up in the Saginaw and Bay area music scene. At that time, the music scene was very active with many bands and concerts. It was a very exciting time for me as a growing musician. I was constantly being inspired. There were also many places to play. I did meet many of the big players from the area and all over Michigan.  In general, after participating in the music scene and watching it evolve through the seventies and eighties, I think it was the most creative time of the music business. I think the sixties were probably the most creative and eclectic artistically. The nineties up to now has been a time of creative and artistic stagnation for music. It is mostly about fame and fortune and no music content. But of course there are always exceptions and there always have been, and still are, great bands and artists. You just have to look harder for them. You generally won’t find them in the popular commercial rock music scene today.

 

You mentioned once before that you were interviewed about Michael Jackson and you wanted to set the record straight. Were you able to do that? What did you Say?

 

My best response to your question would be to have your readers check out an in depth, four part series published at an online site called headphone. guru. The article is called “Synclavier, Music and Michael Jackson”. In the articles, I tell my story with Michael from the first time I met him, working on songs and recording the “Bad” album, the rehearsals for the “Bad” tour, and my experiences “on the road” with Michael and the “Bad” world tour.

 

Here are the links for the four headphone.guru Michael Jackson articles:

 

http://headphone.guru/the-event-horizon-synclavier-music-and-michael-jackson/

 

http://headphone.guru/the-event-horizon-synclavier-music-and-michael-jackson-2/

 

http://headphone.guru/the-event-horizon-synclavier-music-and-michael-jackson-3/

 

http://headphone.guru/the-event-horizon-synclavier-music-and-michael-jackson-part-4/

                                                                    

 

You’ve been a quiet icon in mid-Michigan. What would you like to say to your former friends, musicians?

I would like to say hello to everyone! I do not get back to Saginaw very often…I miss all of you and the good times jamming together! I keep in touch via Facebook! Anyone that wishes to contact me can find me there!

Any last comments?

I want to say thank you for giving me the opportunity to communicate to music fans everywhere!

I would like to leave you with this message…

“Sound is a vibration. Like sound, the universe is also vibration.
All knowledge we seek resides there. All we have to do is listen.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Legend of The Hot Ratzow - A True Story

 

The Legend of the Hot Ratzow, Part I

Bicycle Jims, Jackson Prison

&

The Pursuit of Hope Versus Despair

 

 

 

                                                                    The Hot Ratzow

I met the Hot Ratzow in late 1975 when I applied for a job at Bicycle Jim's Restaurant. I can't remember why I chose that particular restaurant but I recall eating there a few times and sensing a good vibe. I was attending graduate school in Social Work at the University of Michigan and having feeling a nagging ambivalence. I had just completed a one year field placement as a psychiatric social worker at Jackson Prison, just barely passing. I was a 22 year old vegetarian, weighing 145 pounds and wearing my hair down to my shoulders. The convicts took one look at me and licked their lips and rubbed their hands together and they made no bones about eyeing me up and down and blowing me kisses…hmm, this was going to be a real test of how much I can endure while I try to learn psychotherapy. I didn't have a clue. Several of the cons asked me for sex therapy.  One prisoner - all 6ft 5in and 300lbs of him went so far as to ask me to make a referral to University Hospital for a sex change operation. In session he wanted me to call him Donna. So I did.My supervisor Ron Gilles only laughed...the prick. It turned out that Donna just wanted to get close to me for some sex therapy.

Before I stumbled my way out of Jackson Prison, I presented a case to a prestigious team of psychologists, psychiatrists, and social workers. One of the expert was a researcher from Michigan State University who had developed a Rorschach card (ink blots used in a projective psychological testing). I was nervous presenting to so many knowledgeable clinicians and researchers. I stumbled and stammered through my presentation. Hell...my patient was more composed than me. He was a self-mutilator, a cutter, with at least a dozen tattoos. I can't recall the outcome of this important pow-wow except the Rorschach man had the furriest eyebrows I've ever seen. All he had to do was look in the mirror for the perfect Rorschach card. He reminded me of Jack Elam doing his best Dr.VanHelsing with a huge auto-erotic hypodermic needle that had more than a passing reference to phallic symbolism.

Anyway, my student loan didn't come through and my father refused to help. We were fighting.
I was lonely broke and depressed - a fatal combination for an aspiring graduate. I recently broke up with my girlfriend also a U of M student after a particularly intense acid trip. At one point I told her that I didn't really love her. As I continued tripping I curled up in a fetal position and tried to re-enter her womb. She wasn't having any of that so we ended our relationship.

I felt the void and realized something was missing...just didn't know what. The era was imbued with a fine paradox so pure in its contradictions that I existed in a vacuum of questioning authority and experimenting with choices. I was breaking out in a wildfire of heat and frenzy as if I was afraid the dancing would stop and life would fall silent and dreary. We all had grown up with bomb-shelter cold war paranoia and the Kennedy and Martin Luther King assassinations. Many of us protested the Vietnam War and were horrified by the government brutality of Kent State. We were stunned by Watergate but smug in Nixon's disgrace. We laughed at President Jimmy Carter's lust in my heart statement as just a bit disingenuous. A Playboy interview was just too hip. Billy Carter became a marketing pawn with his Billy Beer. He was all the rage along with Punk rock and the Sex Pistols
The legacy of violence and betrayal left us a little cynical and even slightly embittered. We celebrated America's Bicentennial with our tongues-in-cheek as we sang along with Loudon Wainwright III on his big hit Dead Skunk hit and his cool-strange "T-Shirt" album. He seemed the perfect vehicle for our particular fear and loathing. I guess it was destiny or dumb luck that led me past Steve's Lunch and up the stairs to 1301 S. University. I noticed the Bicycle Jim's Restaurant marquee. I walked up the stairwell to the front door of the restaurant. The first person I met was none other than the Hot Ratzow's sister. I filled out an application and she hired me on the spot. She told me to report back on the next day and trained me for a position as a host. I would greet customers, seat them, and cash them out. I would also help bus tables and trouble shoot. Ms. Ratzow was friendly in a cold efficient way and was so fastidious about money that she would arrange all the dollar bills so they faced the same direction...north, I think. Eventually I met everyone...the management team of Joe, TK, Ann, and Kate as well as the revered head chef Roger Brown, Cathy, Linda Lou, Mary and the Hot Ratzow. 

 

This is a photo with me and the real Nell Carraway

I'm asking for more beer

 

How can I put this delicately?
The Hot Ratzow was the most beautiful man I ever met., tall but not too tall, lean yet muscular, His incredible physique was naturally sculpted like a Greek God. He had naturally curly blondish-brown hair and deep blue eyes that were penetrating and kind. He was gifted with a soft voice and manner that revealed a genuine appreciation of others. He was intelligent without preening. He did not have to state his point-of-view. He listened to others.

The Hot Ratzow and I become friends and even lived together like we were the odd couple. We hung out...Roger, Tom Knapp (TK), Hot Ratzow and others. I was more of an outsider. I never quite fit-in with anyone, not totally.
They listened to jazz and Janis Ian. I listened to the Monkees
But I loved them all. And we had several wonderful adventures...

                                     
                                                       This is my buddy Roger Brown            

In the spring of 1976, Michigan encountered an ice storm of horrific force and dimension. Ice blanketed the state. Power outages were reported from Detroit to Copper Harbor. The storm caused millions of dollars of damage. Towns and cities were shut down for several days. It was declared a natural disaster. So what did we do…we tripped on some sweet windowpane. It was better living through chemistry… Roger, the Hot Ratzow and me. It was the journey of a lifetime within the brace of an afternoon. It only seemed like a lifetime. So we dropped acid over at Roger's home on Division Street. I had just moved out of his basement and moved into an apartment with TK where I lived modestly with a mattress and blanket and a few prized possessions. I shared the space with St Bernard who shit all over the floor and - even worse – he was a sloppy kisser. I was the only one with a car when I bought a '64 Chevrolet Impala for $300. It was prized possession.
I would lend it out freely to my friends and between me and everyone else who drove it, I accumulated a mountain of parking tickets that eventually landed me in jail but that is another story.

 Well our acid trip was gradually altering our perceptions, I drove us a few blocks down the road and parked at the Arboretum. We disembarked and started our journey as the acid began to hit. I remember thinking how lucky it was that I was tripping with such acid veterans. I felt safe...for awhile. Suddenly I feel an intense rush of anxiety. I looked up into the sky and I see Roger Brown’s face and his face is laughing at me. As he continues to laugh, his image increases in size until it covers the entire sky.
I'm freaking out. So I look over to the Hot Ratzow and Roger for some kind of comfort and assurance that I hadn’t lost my mind and lo and behold they're freaking out too!.
So we are all shaking and moaning and we are beginning to understand that we are all too high, maybe the acid was cut with some poison or something. Our solution was simply brilliant. We lighted up a joint and drank some beers. In our mind bending state we thought dope and booze would help us come down and it did seem to help. We regained a trembling semblance of composure as we continued our amazing journey. It seemed likehiked for miles until the Hot Ratzow pointed out that we were walking in circles and getting nowhere. We were hopelessly lost despite the fact thatwe had all spent countless hours at the Arboretum, walking our dogs, throwing Frisbees and playing hacky sack. We gradually made our way back to the beginning but not before we encountered the carnage left by the storm, dead birds were everywhere, on the ground and stuck in unnatural and gruesome positions in the trees. Hitchcock couldn't have done it any better. Wemade it to my car.. As I slid into the driver’s seat. I told Roger and the Hot Ratzow that I was too high to drive. But they insisted they were too high to drive. So we compromised. We all drove. I'm in the driver's seat but for the life of me I can't reach the pedals and the steering wheel is three times its size, street lights are melting before my very eyes so Roger and Hot Ratzow helped out. Ratzow gave directions and operated the gas pedal. Roger filled-in with the over-sized steering wheel and the brake pedal. It was all very cozy.
We made it home but I was still in bad shape. So I called TK over at Bicycle Jim's and Theresa was dispatched to help me come down. She was an angel!

Theresa Lockwood (T) and Ronnie Stoneman

@ the Possum Holler

 

It was during our time at our apartment at North University that we got to know an infamous Weatherman. The Weathermen were a radical faction of the Students For a Democratic Society (or simply SDS). The SDS carried some heavy political currency with an intellectual leadership that included Carl Ogelsby and Tom Hayden (later married to Jane Fonda). However, in 1969 at the SDS National Conference, a militant faction calling themselves the Weathermen released a position paper entitled, "You Don't Need A Weatherman To Tell Which Way the Wind Blows (a lyric from Dylan's Subterranean Homesick Blues).” They advocated for urban guerilla cadres to carry out the revolution with sporadic acts of violence. This led to the dissolution of SDS influence and signaled the beginning of the end for the New Left.  By 1976, the Weathermen were only a memory even though a few surviving members soldiered on in solitary pursuit of the working class struggle. So it was an unlikely alliance when we met a former disciple of the Weathermen. It started with Ann Arbor passing a leash law. Students and others would often allow their pets to run free in the Arboretum and other public places. In fact, some students would simply abandon their dogs before returning to their home towns. This resulted in packs of wild and hungry dogs that were sometimes quite menacing.
It was a problem.

 

 

                              

                                

 

Snow Puppy and I were use to going everywhere together - stores, record shops, coffee houses without a leash. No one seemed to mind. One sunny day the Hot Ratzow and I decide to walk our dogs at the Arboretum. We lived close-by and had to only walk through a small cemetery and squeeze through a fence. It was a glorious day until an animal control truck screeched to a halt right behind us. The Hot Ratzow and Taurus ran off with the Dog Warden and his deputies in hot pursuit, stun guns drawn and ready. They attempted to drive after them but Snow and I blocked their way. I was detained and issued a $50 citation. I gave my real name though I didn't have identification on me... duh! Several hours later everyone is at home. The weathermen dude was present and angry about the oppressive leash law. He suggested taking action such as putting a pipe bomb or sugar or something in the gas tank of a police car as a sign of protest. We unanimously declined.
I never heard from him again.
It seemed like things were getting a little strange. By this time the Hot Ratzow and I worked at The Little Brown Jug Restaurant.a pale comparison to Bicycle Jim's. In an unusual turn of events, the owner of Bicycle Jim's refused raises to the women of our management team (TK, Joe, Ann, and Kate) and in a show of solidarity, the entire staff walked out. I was hitching across country to California at the time. So I joined the strike in absentia. We all lost our jobs
and our friends and colleagues dispersed to the four winds. By now I lived with TK across town in an apartment complex. It was getting strained. We had a Dionysian  party complete with steaks, salads, cheesecake, and a huge mound of cocaine. It turned into a fiasco. Too many people taking the spoon...we had to move on. I moved back to Saginaw and worked for my father at White's Bar. I would get an occasional letter from my former roommate TK. He assured me that energy was building for a reunion of souls from Jackson Hole Wyoming to Corvallis Oregon. My friends were opening a restaurant in Corvallis.
Would I like to be involved?

Stay Tuned for Part II

 

SOS - Support Our Scene Music Festival

                                                 


                                                                                

SOS

Support Our Scene

Music Festival

 

Carl Abila is a believer in the power of music to soothe pain, evoke passion and instill the spirit of love. From his spectacular rise with Silverspork to Black Flower Blossom, Abila has always landed with his feet on the ground. He seems to have a gift for developing great bands, unstoppable juggernauts filled up with talent and heat. Abila is a rock solid guardian of the flame, an eternal promise of better things to come. It is in this spirit of giving that Abila has found the eight fold path and brought hope to so many vets, regular folks who’ve led extraordinary lives.

 

 

Tell me about the project you have going.

 

That would be the music festival Bay City, Michigan, Saturday, August 29, 2015 which is a veteran’s drive, and all the proceeds are going to the VA Hospital of Saginaw.

 

Do you have a connection to the veterans?

 

I do have family that have served in the military. We’ve committed in Bay City to try to do this once a year. We’re going to see how the first year goes. We’d like to make it grow. So yeah, it’s something that we feel strongly about.

 

I think we all do. Will this include money that may go to helping vets with PTSD or other physical ailments, problems?

 

It’s going to help the wounded that are less fortunate essentially around our own area. We want to give back, to try to help, especially the vets that are homeless. I just don’t think it is right that veterans who serve our country are homeless and without medical care. It’s shame. It should never happen. These people have sacrificed so much for our country. I can’t express it enough. I do have some family in the service, and it’s a non-stop battle, even at home which is very unfortunate, especially when you get done with battle, you have to battle on your own stomping grounds, so to speak.

 

So in this event, music is the food of love. It can heal, and so you’re going to have a lot of music at this event. Can you tell us about that?

 

Well it kind of goes hand-in-hand with the term SOS. Mid-Michigan and the whole area for that matter has a lot of talent over the years music has always been the most important part of my life. I want to keep it going somehow. What I want to do is make a bigger, better scene, if at all possible.

 

You’ve been part of that through Silverspork and Black Flower Blossom. You’ve even had your own venue in Bay City so you’re one of the true believers. Do you see it that way?

 

Absolutely. I don’t think there’s any success without failure. I don’t think there’s any success without trial. I think you get up again and keep on doing it until you get it right. Everybody does. That’s just part of life. You can’t let it beat you down too much to where you don’t want to try at all. I have gotten to that point at times, but’s music actually that keeps me going.

 

You continue to flourish with Black Flower Blossom. They must be an integral part of the event. Could you talk about the current status of the band?

 

We’ve had some recent member changes so we’re trying to make that project grow as well. There’s a lot of bands I’ve worked with that have been around for a while, they’ve been around the block and have really great music to offer. Jay Burk is now on bass. I play guitar, Carl’s on drums and Melissa May from the former Thunder Chickens group on vocals

 

 Can you give us the line-up?

At this point we are the headliners. The rest of the lineup includes;

Filter International Outlier Fields of August, Pencilhead, Everyday Ghost, H&R Rustic out of Detroit and the Kincaids. These are bands that have been around a long time. I want to have these guys back for one great show, and this is a great time to doit. We have the opportunity for everybody to get back together and just have us a good rock show.

 

Where is it taking place?

WenonahPark in Bay City. Now there’s going to be a band shell there, bands, vendors with food and memorabilia, Hunter’s, Groovy Tattoo out of Bay City will be attending, Brooklyn Boyz Pizza. There’ll be all kinds of food and goodies, all kinds of merchandise for fans.

 

What groups of servicemen did you contact in order to get this together? 

 

Well initially we were going to somewhat surprise the VA Hospital, you know, walk over and give them our proceeds, but it was Vincent Christensen out of the Saginaw VA Hospital that, you know, we were starting to work together on this. I think that we would like to do it every day. He was our main contact to, you know, get something rolling.

 

You care, and when you say what you’re going to do something, you do it. You’re able to say things plainly and lay it out there and be succinct and elegant at the same time.

 

Yeah, I try. Like I said, sometimes it’s scary but you adapt to risks after a while and all you can do is try and you can only go up and if you’ve got to crawl up, that’s the only way you can go. If I can give back to our community somehow doing music, that’s plenty for me. For our first year we’re going to concentrate on music. But we will have Brooklyn Boyz Pizza, Steve’s BBQ, and we’ll probably have elephant ears and cotton candy and that type of thing as well.There will be alcohol, 21 with ID obviously, and we’ll have sodas and water and that kind of stuff.

 

 

What time of day does it start, and when does it end?

The show starts at 4:00, and it will probably go on until 11:30.

It will be outside and there’ll be two stages inside

We haveads that have already started running on Z93, you can look us up on Facebook on Facebook.com/SOS.MI. We have an official website SOSMI.com, and we’re also on Twitter. Indie Spot is one of our sponsors and they’ll be recording the event.

 

 

Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 at the gate.

 

 

Michigan Record Club - For the Love of Vinyl

                                                                              
                                                                           

Bill Young

Michigan Record Club

 

Bill Young was born in 1958 and grew up in Sanford. He had four older sisters and they all liked to listen to music. His parents had a small collection of older country music. This led to a lifelong love for music and his eventual sojourn into record collecting.

 Bill recalls, “I was young when the Beatles made their impact on our radio stations. I also remember their impact on my sisters. I found it interesting and quite amusing that the girls were so smitten by the Beatles. They were also fond of Elvis and his style of rock & roll. I thought he was great. I made it a point to watch all of his movies at the local Drive-in Theatre.”

As he approached his teenage years, one of the biggest problems was that he didn’t have any good radio stations to. “So if we wanted to listen to the new rock and roll music, we had to buy the records. I started out listening to my sisters 45’s but in my opinion they were already out dated. At the age of twelve I was buying my own music.”

 In the early seventies Bill found that his musical tastes leaned more toward the Rolling Stones than the Beatles. “The first album I bought was “Let It Bleed” by the Rolling Stones, using my paper route money and my lawn mowing money, I was able to buy several records. But not just records. I also started buying Creem magazine which I shared with my friends. This was how we kept pace with the rest of the music world.”

By the time Bill reached the age of sixteen his collection consisted of all types of rock music. As he got older, the rock got harder. “We did not take good care of our vinyl as teenagers, said Bill, quite often I would leave my records at my friends homes never to see them again. Once I started driving, I bought 8-track tapes and soon after that cassette tapes. These were great because it was so much easier to take your music with you. No matter where I was, I could hear the loud sound of music. My vinyl collection became a distant memory.”

When Bill was in the military, his desire for vinyl returned with a vengeance. “I had my own place off base and the first thing I bought was new stereo system, of course this included a turntable. I bought some of my old vinyl favorites and many new artists too. This was during the early 1980’s. I didn’t keep many of the records I bought during this period because we simply played them to death!

 Bill has grown older. After working twenty-seven years as a chemical operator, he’s retired due to heart problems but his love for vinyl has grown so much in recent years that he decided to use the new technology on the internet to form a Record Club.

 “My thoughts were that if so many interest groups were gathering on Facebook, then why not try to find other people that have the same love of records that I have. That’s how the Michigan Record Club was conceived. For several years, there seemed to be a big decline in vinyl record sales. It became so bad that most all artists and music producers gave up on vinyl. Nearly every yard sale had a box of old records that people were selling so cheap that they were almost giving them away. I started buying when people were selling but I didn’t get too carried away. The record club began to build slowly. I thought we were a dying breed. The only store that sold records was a place called “Records and Tapes Galore.”

Bill soon noticed that more and more people were becoming friends to his Facebook page. “I had over 2000 friends (including this writer). Then Facebook shut down the page. Without any notice, I was told that the record club needed to be in a different format. I was dejected. I had to start the club all over again following a new format called a group. I was thrilled to see the people coming back to the club. I was also excited to see that vinyl record sales were making a comeback. It doesn’t surprise me at all that vinyl is returning.”

Like so many purists of great analog sound, Bill bemoans the rise of disposable music. “ As the format of music evolved from vinyl to tape, to compact disks and finally to digital MP3 and streaming, we lost that personal connection that we had with our love of music. People will still continue to stream music as they are traveling and working but when you are home relaxing, what better way to kick back and listen to your favorite band than to put on an album, read the back of the album cover and enjoy the rich analog sound of vinyl!”

Michigan Record Club does not have any real formal meetings. “We don’t have dues to pay and most anyone is free to join. I have removed people that didn’t follow the simple rule of being kind and thoughtful. Many of the club members now actually are friends and we all buy, sell and swap records with each other. I get phone calls from people that think we are a “Brick and Mortar” store. They ask if I have records for sale or even if we fix turntables. I explain what the Club is and then I give them guidance to get whatever they need. I have never run a regular record store but I have bought the entire content of a record store. I would much rather help run record shows. The Club supports and helps sponsor a local show in Bay City twice a year. We also are in close contact with many other record show promoters in the state. Record shows are my favorite place to pick up records. They have a large selection of records and it is the best place to find the hard to get records. I still like yard sales and looking for people that are will to sell their collections too!

If you would like to join the Michigan Record Club contact Bill Young through his Facebook page or call him @ 1-989-839-5709

 

  

The Resurgence of Vinyl

                                             

 Warm Analog Grooves

&

 The Resurgence of Vinyl

 

I’ve been a vinyl freak for most of my life. It all started when my older brother brought home groovy 45’s like Take A Look (My Friend) by the Bossmen, East Side Story by Bob Seger & the Last Heard and 96 Tears by Question Mark & the Mysterians. I liked Question Mark the best because he lived on the 800 block of Howard Street next door to my cousin Sally Rork.  She arranged a meeting between my idol and my brother and me. It was a prophecy and a promise for better things to come. Question Mark told us to buy all his 45’s so we did. We bought “I Need Somebody” “Can’t Get Enough of You Baby”,” Girl (You Captivate Me),” and  “Do Something To Me.” I then turned my attention to The Bossmen (On The Road, Baby Boy), Terry Knight & the Pack (Mister, You’re A Better Man Than I), the Excels (California on My Mind) and Bob Seger’s Heavy Music, salacious boner rock & roll. I was coming of age. The first albums I bought were “The Beatles 65 and the “Beach Boys Today.” They were Christmas gifts for my mother. She seemed really delighted my largesse. As I continued my quest for everything vinyl I bought albums by the Frost, The Beatles, Bob Seger System, the Dave Clark 5, the Tremeloes and the Beatles…loved those fabulous harmonies and that insistent big beat. I had it bad and though the seventies, eighties and the new millennium I collected thousands of albums from record stores, mail order catalogs, and garage sales. I bought so many albums from Who Put the Bomp, a mail order magazine that I had a first name relationship with the owner Greg Shaw. He was a true believer and so was I. But then I would get the itch and I would sell all that beautiful vinyl and start all over again, only to repeat this agony like a modern Sisyphus pushing the boulder up the mountain. I continued this pattern of behavior many times until I settled into a comfortable relationship with eBay for the long haul, purchasing back my last big collection until I was suitably embarrassed. My story is not dissimilar to anyone who loves music. To this day I do not regret a single moment in my quest for vinyl. It’s a hunger that cannot be quenched.

 

 

Fred Reif has been in the trenches and witnessed the guerilla warfare of the record collecting industry. He had his own store in Saginaw before he moved over to Ann Arbor to run Schoolkids records. He has bought and sold countless record collections in his time and he’s pretty savvy about how this industry appeals to teenagers as well as aging baby boomers. He scratches his head about the new age collectors buying habits. Recently Fred watched it happen in Frankenmuth where teenagers would buy albums by Kiss, Neil Diamond, Barbara Streisand, Willie Nelson as well as the Beatles and Jefferson Airplane. The younger generation is building their own collections, buying the easy ones first before diving into the more expensive collectable albums (and 45’s). At this stage in their collecting hobby they are primarily picking up the hits. The aging baby boomers are getting rid of the records, rock & roll became rock! Fred realizes that vinyl gets only a small percentage of the sales something like 2% to 6%. In the past few months Jazz recordings are so stalled out those classical recordings are doing better. The 55 and 65 year old demographic is still buying vinyl, but they are not playing the records. Fred listens primarily to Caribbean music but he sells lots of Rock & Roll and Blues 78’s. He sells on eBay but it’s a mixed bag, “It’s harder to sell on eBay because they raised their fees. I used to get 50 free ads a month, now it’s only 20 free ads, plus I’m charged 10% for the sale and 10%for the charge on shipping.” To Fred eBay is trying to get rid of the smaller dealer and Record Store Day promotes vinyl, it’s a free ad for record stores – like Sweetest Day. “I buy obscure stuff and I go to thrift stores everyday, says Fred, I buy collections, most are junk but if I’m lucky I’ll get my money back. I like 45’s the most, that’s all we needed to have, travelling bands would come into town the popularity of one song, like Incense & Peppermints.”

A long time connoisseur of vinyl requested anonymity. But his voice is heard loud and clear. “This is an energizing time period in the last three years, 50% of my sales are high school and college kids. In the 90’s Jack White pushed vinyl and it promoted interest in other records.”  By 2000 eBay changed this for the next 5-10 years.  Now people want to buy things. “Stores are seeing teens buy regular LPs like Hall & Oates and John Mellencamp. The classic stuff by the Beatles, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and Rush are gone, you can hardly find them anywhere (for a reasonable price). Young collectors want the original package. They want to hear the pops and clicks in the music.” In the last 15 years vinyl has been dumped, destroyed and thrown away. Millions of records ended up in the landfills. However on the other side of that equation were the grandparents of the new age collectors are giving their collections to their grandchildren or they would take their parents records and the parents didn’t care. Vinyl became HOT again! Now you see stores pop up from Flint and Frankenmuth to Detroit, New York, Los Angeles and even Brazil. For my anonymous connoisseur the lust for vinyl is growing, “kids buy vinyl, they have to take care of it, clean it and put it on the turntable,  it’s a whole vinyl experience, vinyl is something that you physically own but once it’s gone, it cannot be replaced. Music is a personal thing. Preserve your vinyl!”

                                                                      
                                                                            

 

I contacted Jordan Pries from Electric Kitsch to get his view on the resurgence of vinyl. “Vinyl …it’s almost new again. Their parents got rid of their collections so their children grew up with CD’s and downloads. So it’s almost a new format again.” Pries cites the White Stripes and the Black Keys who were total vinyl heads, to the resurgence of record collecting. “Young people liked those bands and the bands pushed vinyl, it’s like a new way of approaching music. It’s not like reading a great book which is a different media, with the ascendance of the internet music became a something you download, not something you hold and place on a turntable. They could release one song at almost no cost for a physical format. For Pries there is more than music at stake, art work, credits and cool liner notes would be lost. Pries sees younger people buying newer records that aren’t cheap. “They will pay $15-30 dollars and it’s mostly newer music from artists like Arctic Monkeys, Black Keys, Amy Winehouse and Lana Delray. Some teens and adults will buy a record a week.” Reissues and Box sets have been very popular lately especially with classic rockers like Led Zeppelin, Beatles and Pink Floyd.  Jordan recalls his early days of collecting. “Tuesdays were usually the release date. We used to get in line at midnight to get the latest releases such as The Battle of Los Angeles by Rage Against the Machine or Pantera’s The Great southern Trend Kill.” Pries cites industry sales figures for vinyl – 3 million last year; 9.6 million this year so far and should reach 16 million! It should double production.   United Pressing is pressing hundreds of thousands of discs. A buyer from Wichita Kansas found 13 record pressing machines. He will now have capacity to produce huge quantities of vinyl LPs. For Jordan Pries record collecting is personal, “My dad was a record collector and he gave me his collection of classic rock & roll albums that included Del Shannon, The Byrds, The Beatles and Pentangle. My dad was also a musician; he played the organ and was in a popular band called the Coachmen. They released two 45’s on the Target label out of Wisconsin, Girl in the Wind and Hey Bulldog.” Pries cites Jack White and his Third Man Records for bringing some sanity to record collecting. “He wants record stores to survive. They will sell to stores like mine so I can sell LPs cheaper.”

 

In December of 1974 Bill and Judy Wegner opened Records & Tapes Galore. At that time the industry sold vinyl albums and 8 track tapes and cassettes were starting to gain a following. Bill Wegner explains, “We sold a lot of albums, several thousands. We had a one stop distributer who would get all the labels like Capitol, CBS, Warner Brothers and RCA. For a small store we did really well. They pushed hard and always had promos to give away. A particular rack jobber had an old beat up car, he was a bit frumpy and looked like Peter Falk.” Bill had an open invitation to take anything the man offered even if it was the latest, hot off the presses LPs from major artists like Deep Purple or Joe Walsh. The idea was that Bill would play the freebies in the store to promote sales. Bill’s business was booming though the seventies and eighties but it slowed down in the nineties. “CDs came out in 1984, Bill recalls, and it just exploded. RCA promoted CDs as the perfect sound forever…but it was actually the imperfect sound forever.” This led to a mass exodus of from vinyl, people got junked their turntables and bought CD players. Bill recalls, “At one point the industry jettisoned vinyl altogether. By the 1990’s very few albums were being produced and in the mid-nineties LPs ceased production except for a few boutique labels. In 2015 album sales have exploded again and companies are having difficulty keeping up with the demand. It is a marriage of technology and art.”

Bill admits that he sold a ton of CDs during a brief renaissance that emerged in 2010/11. “It is a tribute to several movies that had prominent roles for DJ’s and kids got interested and the DJ became a focal point. He would play the music loudly and use two turntables that could allow the DJ to mix one song into another. Discotheques were prominent and the DJ was the hero. Vinyl was featured in those films, it took the place of the record shop.” Bill has his pulse on the action, he knows that kids have MP3’s but highs and lows are chopped off . Bill says, “Its music but not all of the music.” There is no doubt that kids got into their father’s vinyl collection. It was like tasting forbidden fruit. The kids learned by watching dad dust off the vinyl, hold it  carefully on the edges and set the needle down on the grooves…heaven! Bill is knows that people from one era have an affinity for music from their time, makes sense. Bill reports that older folks are energized by the resurgence. “The LPs that are coming out now are 2/3 new releases and 1/3 reissues,” says Bill, “Is it a fad or will it sustain and grow. It’s hard to tell.”

“I love music and records do have power for me, it involves me more and compels me to drop my newspaper and listen intently to those beautiful sounds”

Peace & Love

Bo White