In the beginning...
| The Music Bachs had left the building. Well, I was the only one from the rhythm section left in Bedford. John Wicklund had been gone a year already. Dave Seymour and Rick Salome had graduated and both left town. The horns were still there - Bruce, Eric, and Allyn. |
| I started talking to guitar player Donnie McIntyre early in the 1968 school year. We had a lot of the same musical interests. Mostly that we both wanted to be working in a band. We discussed how the horns still wanted to play. We just needed a bass player and a drummer. |
| Donnie knew a drummer ho'd graduated from Lexington High School a 3-4 years before. He was Bob Heiligmann and he'd been in one of the area's hottest bands, the Mad Hatters. I had heard of the band, but never seen them. I was pretty localized to Bedford. |
| I can't remember who introduced the bass player, Oscar DePriest to the band. Oscar was the strong silent type. Sometimes, in response to something I'd say, he'd just sneer. Ha. He was a fine bass player, especially for the material we would play. |
| We worked out the music much the same way the Music Bachs had. In rehearsals, everybody listened to the recording and we spoonfed each other parts until we had it all. The horns were especially quick and accurate picking up their parts, even without written music. We played 4-5 songs from the first Blood, Sweat & Tears album and several from the Electric Flag, We did Touch Me - the Doors hit had horns. |
| And for one song a night, we let the drummer have his turn - a full-out drum solo. Bob was an incredible drummer, having studied the Gene Krupa/Buddy Rich drum wars extensively. He did things on the drums I'd never thought a drummer could do. His contribution was quite a show - one our audiences would wait for. |
| The band was well received during my senior year at Bedford High School. We mostly played gigs in Bedford and Lexington, and that limited the number of gigs we had. Still, it was quite a band for a bunch of kids (except Bob) from high school. |