Should Of Been Rock Stars
I got started playing music when I was able to finally reach the piano keys. Our sister, Joyce, played piano and played some pretty wild rag time things that I enjoyed listening to. Then our other sister, Betty, sang. One of my earliest memories is a band setting up in our living room in the 1950's and Betty being the singer with that band. They brought in a real drummer and guitar player. They were a real 50's band and had that 50's sound. They made a recording or two with Betty. They did a rendition of “Tammy”, Debbie Reynolds hit song, and a song called “Just Between You and Me”. A good old 50's song. I have no idea if they wrote it or where it came from. I think Betty still has the record they made.
Our mom played piano and did some church singing. Our dad would do what he called chording on the piano and also played guitar, although he did not have one for some reason. Dennis’ mom, our Aunt Alice, sang in night clubs and had a real vocal coach. There was always music around and we thought it was normal so it was no big deal, and I suppose, that is what got us going.
The plaza theater in Hawthorne is where the kids went on Saturdays to catch the newest Sci Fi movies like “Forbidden Planet”, and Real scary ones like “House on Haunted Hill”. We saw Jerry Lewis comedies and stuff like that. “Absent Minded Professor”, “Old Yeller”. Anyhow, that is where I went with Larry and Dennis one Saturday. It just so happened that “Jailhouse Rock” was playing. Everybody liked Elvis for some reason and he came off pretty cool. Everybody liked him and that crazy rock and roll he played. I could not have been more than five or six at the time.
I must have reasoned that everybody liked Elvis because he played a guitar. “Maybe people would like me too if I had one!” So I actually got the first guitar in the family when I was eight, on Christmas. I was so proud of it. I showed it to everyone and took it to my grandma's house where we all met on Christmas day. Nobody seemed to be impressed by me or my guitar. It didn't matter because I was going to learn to play it one day. I had a Mel Bay chord book that got me started. Then I found out that steel stings hurt and it was not going to be easy.
Our dad tried to show me a few things on that guitar but was completely frustrated because he had whacked off a piece of his finger and could not play. He did manage to show me a couple of things that I still remember to this day like ... “My Dog Has Fleas” ... and a few diddys that sounded very Okie or country. He was very influenced by hillbilly music.
It was a couple of years later that Larry and I got those electric Silvertones with the built in amp in the case from Sears. That's when things really began in earnest. Dennis was not to be left out and got a blue electric guitar soon afterwards. We would listen to Duane Eddy instrumentals and try to get our electric guitars to sound that way. Surf music was popular by that time and we learned those songs too like “Walk don't run”, “Surf Rider”, “Pipeline”, “Wipe out”, and “Meserlou”. There was no band at that point, just us punks learning to play those guitars.
I guess we were hooked because I just laid my acoustic guitar down a few minutes ago after getting a little crazy with it. “Once a musician always a musician”, I suppose.
Roger Nelson
Roger and Dennis
(sometime in the 2000's)
Roger Nelson