How it all began... I was living in Springfield IL, my home town and the capital of Illinois in the middle of state on the infamous Rt 66 (now I55). Started 4th grade trumpet, Illinois All State trumpet trios 17 badge awards, all I remember is "triple tonguing" was fun. Played in the Lanphier Highschool Band. One night while watching The Ed Sullivan Show saw on TV I saw the first performances by the Beatles and then another night The Rolling Stones and the scales fell from my eyes. I said to myself, that's what I want to do and everything after was either consciously or sub-consciously focused on that paradigm. I Quit orchestra, quit high school football, went to work for Ralph Sordel's House of Music store at 15, became a busboy at the Springfield Supper Club, washed dishes at the Illinois State Fair's Clara's catering and bought my first Fender Champ amp and Noble Japanese guitar. My parents bought me a small record player and an album, Louie Armstrong and the Dukes of Dixieland. I bought a 45 "The Last Kiss". I joined a band with guitarist John Crouch who taught me the blues rock pentatonic scales and chords. "Oh lordy", I did not need drugs or alcohol, I was high on the music. All through high school and through my first year at a small college in Springfield IL I played in local bands. One band the Reindeer Army run by sax man Bob Best and his brother drummer Denny Best regularly at a skating rink that threw concerts. So at 16 and 17 we opened for the Seeds, Paul Revere, and more. My bands ompeted in battle of the bands at the Illinois State Fair where I met keyboardist Robby Robinson and his brother bassist Rex whose careers are legendary and I will talk more later about my 50 year relationship with them.
Over two weeks of watching that show my life changed for ever. I first saw the Beatles debut performance, then the Rolling Stones, and then many other great rock artists perform. But the Rolling Stones threw my poor brain for a loop. I immediately wanted a guitar/amp and wanted to be in band. Over the years I have heard that same story from so many fellow "baby boomers" I can't keep count. So much detail in all of our lives so I am only going to talk about the music part of my life that has been my driving force in life for all these years. Life for most of us is not linear and my path has taken so many curved paths with so many ups and downs it is hard to follow but music has always been my fall back and let's say one of my spiritual partners in this world.
So my parents had rented the trumpet from a northside music store called The House of Music owned by the infamous Ralph Sordel and his wife Jane (see pic below). I wound up working for them and bought my first guitar, a Japanese Noble brand. I had a record player that played 45s/LPS and my first records were the Louis Armstrong and the Dukes of Dixieland, Bob Dylan, Siegel-Schwall Band (my first blues influence), and various pop singles like the Righteous Brothers and J. Frank Wilson & The Cavaliers. and a few more. I was self taught on the guitar by buying a chord book which included Micky Baker's Vol 1 (learned that cursed by rockers chord the Maj 7th). From there I graduated to early psychedelic rock like the Electric Prunes and Paul Revere & the Raiders. Then it was Top 40 that had everything Jimmy Hendrix Purple Haze, Johnny Mathis Misty, Wilson Pickett's Mustang Sally, Booker T & the MGs, Cream Sunshine of Your Love, and we know the guitar players in those bands.
My aunt got me a bus boy job at a supper club where I earned enough money to buy a Fender Princeton amp and then a Fender Deluxe. I also met an older college kid, John Crouch, who had a Gibson SG guitar and convinced me the Noble was not makin it so I got an SG also. He was able to get us some local gigs and that was it, I was 16 and off the races gigging and making some money. I actually used to loan my parents some money that I had made. From John's band I had met two brothers, who's father had organized a band called first the Signets and then 1967 - The Raindear Army who made a 45 performing Subterranean Sunset. Gary Bloom (Vocals), Denny Best (Drums), Rick Gasparin (Guitar), Larry Burger (Bass) and Bob Best (Saxophone). Rick went off to college and I became the guitarist and trumpet player. Larry and Bob's fathers opened a teen skating rink we played regularly there for teen dances and then they started bringing in national groups like the Prunes and Paul Revere with us as the openers. This also started a life long relationship with legendary vocalist Gary Bloom. During that time I attended a Jr College in Springfield we played around IL.
The two fathers had a business difference and Larry and fam moved to Kansas City MO where his father managed a hotel the Bellerive Hotel that housed the entertainers from The Starlight Theater and others. At that time I started working with a singer/guitarist Randy and The Ramblers who had toured as the opener for the Kinks first US tour. So Larry who was only 16 talked me, Gary, a drummer Frank Maditota to move to Kansas City to form a group. He had well known booking agency, The Jackson Agency audition us and housed us in a chalet in front of the swimming pool at the Bellerive. Quite heady for a 17 1/2 year old. We passed the audition and I learned a lot from them including it didn't matter how old we were. We had to perform as well has the most experienced performers. Our first gig was at the Merrygoround Lounge in KC that had a show with us as the house band, a comedian, and a stripper (dancer). We each did a set. The bar itself was a merrygoround and it had a cage behind it with a seat above a tub with a dancer who would sit on it and people could throw soft balls at a target and if hit the scantly clad woman would drop into the tub. We were booked all over the southwest states with many clubs being much better then the former but I did learn a lot about life during that time. . While at the hotel we hung with the performers that included Kate Smith, The Buckinghams, and others. I learned so much on guitar hanging with all the great players passing through Kansas City. After about a year with the Vietnam war going I was drafted but was able to go back to school in Springfield.
I started playing a lot with organist/keyboard player Robby Robinson and his brother bassist Rex. Robby went on to play with many well known music stars and I cover that later. That was the time I first met legendary concert promoter Len Trumper and he booked Robby's band with me as a opener for the original Canned Heat.
I eventually wound up moving back to Kansas City when Larry called and his father had some gigs for us. We brought with us from Illinois vocalist Gary Bloom. As you can see in the pic above we all wore nehru jackets and called the band King Hep Fish. We played college circuit. At his time the radio world had gone to AOR (Album Oriented Radio) and it was a remarkably creative time for bands. During this period I was still playing my SG and using either a Fender Super Reverb or a Fender Deluxe Reverb. I had a Boss pedals, mostly a delay, phaser, overdrive, and at times an Echoplex and a fuzz. I was starting to get a good sound. Not too long after that Gary Bloom our vocalist was drafted and went into the Army (he wound up be stationed in the states). Larry and I then revamped the band and we came up with a "killer" group. We added a vocalist "Spanky" who sang with top KC Soul/Rock bands and a Hammond B3 Keyboardist Steve who hauled his Hammond in a a trailer with two leslies and pulled it with a jeep. We played all over Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and Nebraska. We played several times a week at a time in Lawton KS where there was a staging army base for guys going to Viet Nam. It was crazy with two go=go dancers on each side of the stage. The drinking and pot was heavy and we got standing ovations every night. Spank did a medley of Joe Cocker tunes that just slayed everyone and we also did King Crimson's In The Court of The Crimson King that was a favorite. We played gigs all over KC, Kansas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma. So many bands were around at that time. Larry's Dad got a job managing a hotel in Minneapolis and booked us in Deluth MN for two weeks. We played a club across the Lake Superior Bridge on the lake for a week. We had packed houses and standing ovations. Spanky was great, the B3 cooked and I was still playing through the Super and Boss pedal board. My playing was really developing because I was playing almost every night and listening to the great guitarists that the AOR spawned back then.
During that time I had a bearded guy come in and sit in front of me and stared at me while I was playing every night. Enter into my my life Mickey Litwin. Mick was a 35 year old beginning guitar player who also raced motorcycles. We became fast friends and wound up staying at his place, a huge old house he was remodeling on the side of the hill that Duluth was built on. We partook, played guitar, laughed, life was good. At the end of that run, the band decided to call it quits and I stayed in Duluth for a few months and fronted a band with 3 Duluth musicians. One guy was another great guitar player and we played Allman's music and other songs that I sang on. They had an old school bus that blew out a lot of white smoke but we still hauled equipment in it. Duluth is so far North it was a short ride to Canada so went went to Canada and played some gigs. Going across the border in that bus with 4 very long haired guys was a trip. Border guards were so suspicious of us but the usually took a quick look and waved us through because the white exhaust was so bad.
That band lasted a summer. Mick and I headed back to Springfield IL. Larry and and some of his friends had a farm house in the country. Actually there was about 3 bands living in country houses all within a few miles of each other. I dropped my first hit of acid there at night listening to Allman Brothers Bands record with the son Dreams on it. It truly impacted my life and I just lived for the guitar. Because singing helped get gigs I kept working on that part of me too. Things got weird there, I just was not cut out to be a hippie, ha. So Mick and I packed up and drove to Kansas CIty and stayed at Steve the B3 players house and we put another band together and started gigging right away. Steve played bass on his B3 pedals. WeMick was our roady and spiritual advisor. We got a gig in Aspen Colorado at a club for a week, lived in a beautify codo they provided and had a blast. I met an LA guitarist there that showed a lot of "shit" on the guitar. But alas that band did not last I wound up back in Springfield.
I will stop this post here and stayed tuned for PHASE II of the Greg Pasenko Music Saga. Woo Woo!
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