VERY RARE 45 Psychedelic Records- Vintage Recording

$

504

I have had several request for more of these rare 45's. Here is the story of how I came to get them and an interview with one of the band members. These 45's belonged to Red Libbon one of the early members and a relative of mine. He died at the age of 18. Check out my other items!    

Here is the interview about "SOMETHING WILD"and an e-mail message about my 3rd cousin Red,

Hello,

I have recently located a old 45’s with Something Wild and Trippin Out. They were my 3rd cousins. I had always thought that he was in your band but I could not find his name on the site so I thought that my grand mother might have told me wrong when I was young. Ronnie Libengood was his name; He died when he was 18. Did you know him can you tell me anything about him? Was he involved in your band or maybe he was just a friend or roadie. Could you forward this to anyone who might have more information? Thanks for your time.

Best regards,

Robert Keith Froom

www.4theworld.org

robert@4theworld.org

Hi Robert: Wow, that is a blast from the past! We knew and called Ronnie by the name of "Red" because of his red hair. We also listed his last name as Libbon, although that might have been his "stage" name. Red was our drummer for a time in our band Something Wild. I remember practicing at his home in Santa Maria. He was an excellent drummer before he became ill with a brain tumor, as I understand it. We all loved him and he was truly a nice guy. If you'd like to sell those old 45's, I would be interested in them. My grandkids can look to see what grandpa did when he was a kid. Here's a copy of an interview I did that comments on Red:

Take care, Robert.

Bill Evans

Nipomo, CA

BEVERLY PATERSON’S INTERVIEW

WITH BILL EVANS,

FORMERLY OF SOMETHING WILD

B.P.: How did you become interested in music?

B.E.: Older sibling sonic subjugation, I guess. Sandy, my sister, was into Elvis in the late ‘50’s and would buy all his records and other emerging "rock" artists of the day and play them all-the-time. I remember one day when I was around 10 or 11 trying to dance with her to Jailhouse Rock and her mocking me. "You just don’t have any rhythm, Bill!" I determined from that day forward I was going to get this thing called "rhythm". When she wasn’t using it, I was always playing her record player. I also asked for and was given an old acoustic nylon string guitar and some music books and taught myself to play. After my mom and dad divorced, to get out of the house then populated by my mom and two sisters, I basically hung out with some guys my age that also played guitars. We would listen to records by Link Wray, The Ventures, early surf music artists, blues musicians and copy them on guitar. This group consisted of at various times Frank Lancer, Chris Lyman, Tim Leach, Joe Geppi and Mickey Moshier. This group started when we were in the seventh grade and formed the beginning nucleus of the Hustlers a year later in 1962.

B.P.: What bands did you play in prior to Something Wild and did you record any material?

B.E.: Something Wild was merely a name change for The Hustlers. At the time of this change, the line up consisted of Kal-X-Blue on vocals, Tim Leach on rhythm guitar, Joe Geppi on bass, Micky Moshier on drums and myself on lead guitar. In the early pre-Hustler days, we were just a bunch of junior high school kids at Fesler Jr. High School in Santa Maria, California, when we started in 1961.

Some early members of this loose association were Frank Lancer, Chis Lyman, Bob Pierce, Micky Moshier and later, Tim Leach. Frank Lancer and I actually started the Hustlers as a "gang". When we finally figured out that being in a "gang" involved fighting with other "gangs", we dropped the idea and decided to become "musicians" instead. Besides, it was easier to get girls playing guitar than flashing switchblades and homemade weapons-of-destruction around town. So Frank Lancer and I bought Sears Silvertone guitars and practiced in his back garage. We plugged into his folks' record player for amplification. We had natural "fuzz" as the tiny speakers soon shredded and that was, by default, the only tone available. Our inspiration for guitar came from learning Duane Eddy and Link Wray instrumentals. Joe Geppi’s bass rig consisted of a Silvertone bass with a amplifier built in his guitar case. Not what you’d call an earth shaker.

We played local parties in private homes for awhile until the word started getting out about the band. We then played school dances and some concerts. We opened for the Byrds at Righetti High School Auditorium in Santa Maria. This was just after their hit "Turn, Turn, Turn" came out. This concert was just before Kal-X-Blue joined the band and before Billy Payne, of now Little Feat fame, joined as our keyboard player. As we improved, we started getting booked for dances and larger gigs. We won our first "Battle of the Bands" in Solving, California, at the Blue Dolphin club. We got a major break by being on a local TV bandstand (KCOY -12) dance show. After the show, Karl Gebhardt (Kal-X-Blue), who had performed in another band on the same show, approached us after our set and asked if he could be our "lead singer". Since no one in our lineup at that time sang very good, we were pretty much open to his offer. Kal had been in prison for awhile in the Chicago area. To this day, I don't know the charge. The Judge apparently offered him the choice of "getting our of town" or going into the army. Well, I guess Kal chose moving to Santa Maria. He had an aunt in the area and lived with her on Railroad St. in Santa Maria. Anyway, at the time, he was several levels above us musically and soon was whipping the band into shape as a Chicago style blues band. There’s no argument that Kal was the Wild in Something Wild. He loved to shock, intimidate, offend and generally stir people up. You loved him or hated him. Something wild recorded "Hole in Her Soul" and "The Blues" at Stars International Recording Studios in Los Angeles in, I believe, early 1966. There were only a handful of these put to acetate and from what I hear, are quite rare and sought after by certain record collectors who are in the garage/psychedelic genre. I myself don’t have one but other band members do.

B.C.: How did the members of Something Wild all come together?

B.E.: You’d have to say the core members of Something Wild were Joe Geppi and myself. We were both in the band from the very beginning as the Hustlers and all the way through to the end. Kal joined the Hustlers after a local TV show had the Hustlers in a battle of the bands dance show. The drummers in sequence were Micky Moshier, Bill Peckham and Red Libbon. Billy Payne, now with Little Feat, replaced Tim Leach in the band after Tim left in ’66. Tim, Billy and myself were in the same class at Righetti High School all through the four years of ’63 to ’67. Joe was 3 or 4 years older than the rest of us and Kal was 3 years older too.

B.C.: Who picked the name Something Wild and did it stand for anything special?

B.E.: At a band meeting in early '65, Kal-X-Blue (Karl Gebhardt) and I pushed for renaming the band "Something Wild". We had felt the "Hustlers" name was too dated and besides, since we had by then done a lot of "experimenting" with psychedelic drugs, we wanted a band name with a little more "hipness" to it. Hence - Something Wild. Our reputation with Kal-X-Blue as front man with the band also gave impetus to a name change. Because of his antics and extreme behavior on and off stage, our band was rapidly developing a lock-up-your-children-and-animals’ reputation anyway. The Hustlers didn’t quite do it.

B.P.: What were the band's main influences?

B.E.: I would say when the Hustlers were forming, our influences were the Ventures, Elvis, Link Wray and some of the early instrumental surf music such as The Impacts. As new members were added, they each brought along their particular influences as well. Kal, of course, was very heavy into Chicago style blues before he dropped acid. After that, well…….

B.P.: What were some of the local spots you played at?

The Blue Dolphin Club in Solvang, Righetti High School and Santa Maria High School in Santa Maria, Earl Warren Showgrounds in Santa Barbara, the Veterans Hall in Santa Maria and numerous other venues where the band members could be under 21 and still play.

B.P.: What was your first recording session like?

B.E.: Very intimidating. Most of the band members were sophomores at Righetti High School at the time and had never done anything like this. We all drove to Hollywood to the Stars International Recording Studios. I’ll never forget during a break in the recording, we went outside to smoke and Ken Keseys’s Electric Kool-Aid-Acid Test Bus, "Further", drove by. We had been doing psychedelics for several years (even before it was strictly illegal) and thought this event was quite cool.

B.P.: Who wrote "Tripping Out" and what was the story behind it?

B.E.: Kal, Bill Payne and myself wrote this song. I wish I could now say that it was a song to warn kids about dropping acid but it wasn’t. The truth is, during this period, we were on LSD a lot of the time, both on and off stage, and we wanted to write a song about our psychedelic experiences. Locally, we were known as a band that stretched the limits and offended the establishment and this song was just another way to twist the knife and put some salt in the wound.

What can you tell me about "She's Kinda Weird"?

B.E.: This song was a combination speedy blues and comedy number. It is about a weird girl (some think it might have been Kal’s girlfriend at the time). I won’t go into the lyrics as they are "R" rated but fortunately, because of the poor recording quality of the vocals, no one could decipher the lyrics anyway.

B.P.: What prompted you to start your own label - Psychedelic Records?

B.E. Probably psychedelics. Yeah, that’s probably what defined the band at that time. So why not our own record label? The band was evolving into an acid band by this time anyway so it seemed to fit.

B.P.: Did any other bands record for the label?

B.E.: No.

B.P.: How many copies of "Tripping Out"/"She's Kinda Weird" were pressed?

B.E.: I don’t know. I think it was between 500 and 1,000 copies.

B.P.: Did the single get much airplay?

B.E.: At first, "Tripping Out" was played quite a bit by the regional radio stations. KRLA, in Los Angeles, played it and word was out that disc jockeys were getting a lot of angry calls from parents who were now figuring out the words.

B.P.: How was the record distributed?

B.E.: I think it was solely through our efforts and mailing them out to radio stations. We also had them in record and music stores on consignment.

B.P.: Did Something Wild ever plan to record an entire album?

B.E.: No, we never had enough original material. Even if we had, the band was doomed to break up long before we could put together an album.

B.P.: Did you tour much out of your area?

B.E.: Not really. Something Wild usually played in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Counties. The Kal-X-Blues Band (Kal and I from Something Wild + others) played at the Fillmore in San Francisco after Something Wild broke up.

B.P.: Who were some of the major bands you played with?

B.E.: The Byrds, Canned Heat, Captain Beefheart the Searchers, The Spats & the Chocolate Watch Band.

B.P.: Can you tell me about some of your most memorable concert experiences?

B.E.: That’s got to have been the concert opening for the Byrds. Also, later on, playing at the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco. That was unbelievable.

B.P.: Were there a lot of other bands playing around the Santa Maria area at the

time?

B.E.: Not really. Locally, there were the Chevelles, The Impacts and The Debonaires that I recall.

B.P.: When exactly did Something Wild break up and what caused the band to do so?

B.E.: At the beginning of the school year in September of 1966, Kal-X-Blue called a band meeting at my house in Santa Maria. Our record had been out for a few months and from what we were hearing from our manager, a local disc jockey, there was now quite a bit of interest coming from Los Angeles and San Francisco about the band. He felt strongly that it was now time to be fully committed to the band to the point where we left the comforts of home and high school and hit the road. I remember clearly that Billy Payne’s and my vote at the time was to stay in school and live at home. (No regrets here!) This was the dividing line in the band at the time. We finished up a few already scheduled gigs and then everyone went their separate ways.

B.P.: Did you play in any bands after that?

B.E.: After Something Wild broke up, I played with Kal in his new Kal-X-Blues Band. We did a few rehearsals together and then played at the Fillmore in San Francisco on Holloween, 1966. They had bands playing all day long and we were one of them. After a long hiatus, I played professionally with a local band on the central coast by the name of Reeder from 1991 through 1994. I quit the band after our 4th child, Hannah, was born. I was getting a little burnt out too with the hours and the fact that I was the only band member with a day job.

B.P.: What is your reaction to all this interest in sixties garage and psychedelic bands?

B.E.: It’s really unbelievable. I mean, how do you explain it? In a way, I’m honored that there is even a handful of people who would even remember our band from so long ago.

B.P.: How would you describe the type of music you're currently making?

B.E.: I use a lot of blues influenced rock and, with my 12-string Rickenbacker, a lot of Byrds and John Fahey influenced stuff.

B.P.: Do you have any particular favorite contemporary artists?

B.E.: Gin Blossoms, Jayhawks, Matthew Sweet, Kings X, Jeff Healey Band, Counting Crows and many other artists. I like a lot of Green Day’s stuff. Very tight. I’m fairly eclectic when it comes to taste in music. Sorry, I don’t do rap or whiney country. (OK, Mary Chapin Carpenter when no one’s looking.)

B.P.: In retrospect, how do you view your days with Something Wild?

B.E.: As kind of a whirlwind. Looking back, I obviously can’t change anything. Would I repeat it? Probably not. I regret the drugs, the coasting through High School with marginal grades, the shallow relationships and many other things I wouldn’t do over again. The band replaced, or tried to, an internal and social vacuum left from the wake of my parent’s divorce. When my memory becomes fuzzy, you almost remember those times as being all fun and glamorous. They really weren’t. The drugs really screwed up our relationships with each other and were a real downer as far as stifling true creativity goes. Yes, it was fun and exciting but there was a dark side to it as well.

B.E.: In conclusion, while hitchhiking in the Mountain Drive area of Santa Barbara in the summer of 1968, I met a Christian who explained to me just who Jesus really was when stripped of "Christianity" and organized religion. Like Roger McGuinn of the Byrds subsequently found out, it’s pretty tough to resist that kind of attraction. That abruptly ended my psychedelic lifestyle and my chemically enhanced music career. Today I'm working on an original series of songs and instrumentals that showcase the chimey sounds of the Rickenbacker 12 string. Hopefully, if everything else settles down, I might just put a new band together and just maybe.......

songs

She's Kinda Weird

Something Wild

Trippin Out

Something Wild

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